
Copyright N°. 



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AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR 
SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



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•T 

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AMERICAN LITERATURE 



SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



BY 

WILLIAM B. CAIRNS, Ph.D. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN LITERATURE 
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1914 

All rights reserved 






COPTKIGHT, 1914, 

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1914. 



Nortoooo jprfSB 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



SEP 24 1914 



ICI.A379.619 



PREFACE 

Teachers of English are fairly well agreed that most 
of the time spent in literary study should be devoted to 
literature itself, rather than to history, biography, or 
second-hand criticism. Yet many, and it seems to me an 
increasing number, feel that the student needs a brief 
general survey to aid him in grouping and correlating 
scattered facts, and to show things in their right propor- 
tions. This is especially true in American literature, 
where, if anywhere, the American student should corre- 
late literary history with other history, and should see 
that American authors reflect in their writings national 
life. 

This book is intended primarily for use in secondary 
schools where such a survey is offered in the third or 
fourth year of the course. It gives relatively few dates 
or unessential biographical facts, and only a moderate 
amount of formal criticism ; but it aims to show the con- 
tinuous growth and development of American literature, 
to point out its connection with the American history 
which the student already knows, and to discuss in their 
proper relationships those authors with whom an Ameri- 
can might reasonably be supposed to have an acquaintance. 

A single brief term would be sufficient to study the es- 
sential parts of the text, and to illustrate them by refer- 
ence to writings which the pupil has already read. The 
work will be far more profitable and more interesting, 
however, if the history can be enforced by a considerable 
amount of reading in the literature itself. The lists of 



vi PREFACE 

readings and topics should furnish ample material for 
such an extension and enrichment of the course. 

These lists of readings and topics have been submitted 
to several successful teachers of English in secondary 
schools. Among those to whom I am especially indebted 
for hints, additions, and advice, are my colleague, Professor 
II. Iv. Bassett ; Mr. Merle M. Hoover, of the William L. 
Dickinson High School, Jersey City ; and my former pupils 
at Wisconsin or Columbia, Miss May V. Dunn, Miss Ger- 
trude Ross, Miss J. W. Rutland, and Miss Leslie Spence. 
These persons must be credited with many of the happi- 
est suggestions in the lists, but they are in no way re- 
sponsible for the limitations and defects. While the 
chronological tables in the appendix have been compiled 
from various sources, it would be unfair not to acknowl- 
edge my indebtedness to WhitcomVs Chronological Out- 
lines of American Literature. 

For permission to reproduce interesting illustrations I 
would extend my thanks to Harper & Brothers, Dodd 
Mead & Company, and Mr. W. E. Benjamin. 

W. B. C. 

University of Wisconsin, 
July, 1914. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



PAGE 

1 



CHAPTER I 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1607-1765) 
Southern Colonial Writings, 1607-1676 
Southern Colonial Writings, 1676-1765 
New England Colonial Writings, 1620-1676 
New England Colonial Writings, 1676-1765 
Writings in the Middle Colonies 
General Summary of the Colonial Time . 
Readings and Topics 



3 

4 
10 
14 
27 
36 
41 
43 



CHAPTER II 

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1765-1800) 

New England 

The Middle Region 

The South 

General Summary of the Revolutionary Time 
Readings and Topics 



50 
51 
61 
73 

77 
80 



CHAPTER III 

THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 

(1800-1833) 84 

New York 87 

New England 112 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



Philadelphia 
The South . 
The West . 
General Summary 
Readings and Topics 



PAOF. 

11!) 

119 
121 

122 
123 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 

(1833-188:3) 128 

The New England Transcendentalists .... 132 

The New England Abolitionists 147 

Miscellaneous New England Writers .... 171 

Thk Middle States 212 

The South 233 

The West 249 

General Summary . 262 

Readings and Topics 265 

CHAPTER V 

RECENT YEARS (1883-1913) . . .281 

Conclusion 294 

Readings and Topics 296 

APPENDIX 

Chronological Tables „ . 301 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Ralph Waldo Emerson . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Jamestown in 1622 ......... 4 

Frontispiece to Smith's Map of New England with portrait of 

John Smith 7 

John Smitli held captive by the Indians. A picture from an 

early American school reader ...... 8 

William Byrd 13 

Pilgrims landing from the Mayflower. A picture from an early 

American geography . . . . . . . . 1"> 

Schoolhouse at Dedham, Massachusetts ; built in 1649 . . Hi 

John Winthrop 18 

Pages from the New England Primer ...... 20 

Statue of Thomas Hooker at Hartford 21 

Title-page of The Simple Cooler 22 

Title-page of Anne Bradstreet's first volume of poems . . 25 
A night attack by the Indians. A picture from an early Ameri- 
can school reader 28 

Cotton Mather 31 

Title-page of a sermon by Cotton Mather 33 

Jonathan Edwards ......... 34 

Benjamin Franklin 38 

Title-page of Poor Richard's A Imanac 39 

Title-page of Godfrey's Poems 40 

Title-page of a patriotic almanac of 1770, with portrait of 

James Otis 52 

Susanna Rowson. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 54 
An early illustration for McFingal '.; preparations for the tarring 

and feathering 56 

Alexander Hamilton 62 

ix 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



An advertisement of the Fe/leralist 

The beginning of the Crisis as first published 

Independence Hall 

Charles Brockden Brown 

Philip Freneau .... 

Jefferson's home at Monticello 

Thomas .Jefferson .... 

The committee on the Declaration of Independence 

Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence 

Patrick Henry 

Washington Irving ...... 

Irving at the age of 22. (From The Bookman, by permission of 

Dodd. Mead & Company) .... 
Launcelot Langstaff — one of the supposed authors of Salma 

gundi. From the first number 
The old Dutch church at Sleepy Hollow 
Joseph Jefferson as Rip van Winkle 
Ichabod Crane's school ; by Darley, a famous early American 

illustrator 

An English cartoon of Irving 

Sunnyside, Irving's home on the Hudson 

James Fenimore Cooper 

Monument on site of Otsego Hall, Cooper's residence at Coopers 

town 

William Cullen Bryant .... 

An advertisement of Bryant's juvenile satire 

Bryant in his earlier years .... 

Bryant's home at Roslyn, Long Island 

Bryant, Daniel Webster, and Irving at the memorial services 

for Cooper in 1852. (From The Bookman, by permission of 

Dodd, Meail & Company) 

FitzGreene Halleck. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature,by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 
Joseph Rodman Drake. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library 

of American Litt rature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 
John Howard Payne. ( From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 



63 
64 

66 
68 
69 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 
88 



89 
90 
92 

95 
96 

98 

102 
105 
106 
106 
107 



109 
110 
111 
112 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XI 

PAGE 

William Ellery Charming 114 

Richard Henry Dana. (From Stedman <Sc Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 115 

Daniel Webster .116 

Edward Everett 117 

John C Calhoun 120 

Old North Church. Boston 135 

Emerson as a young man . . . . . . . .136 

Emerson's house in Concord ....... 138 

Emerson's grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Concord . . 140 

Henry D. Thoreau ......... 112 

Walden Pond. The heap of stones marks the site of Thoreau's 

hut 144 

Margaret Fuller 145 

Amos Bronson Alcott . . . . . . . . .146 

William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips .... 149 

Heading of Garrison's Liberator ....... 150 

Whittier's birthplace 151 

John Greenleaf Whittier ........ 153 

James Russell Lowell 157 

Lowell at 31. (From The Bookman, by j^ermission of Dodd, 

Mead & Company) 158 

Elmwood, Lowell's home in Cambridge . . . . . 164 

Mrs. Stowe as a young woman 168 

Title-page to first edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin .... 169 

Harriet Beecher Stowe ......... 170 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ....... 172 

The Longfellow house at Portland, Maine ..... 173 

Craigie House — Longfellow's home at Cambridge. Side view 

from the grounds . . . . . . . . .174 

The Wayside Inn, Sudbury 177 

Longfellow in 1860 180 

Nathaniel Hawthorne 183 

Hawthorne as a young man ........ 184 

The Old Manse at Concord 186 

Hawthorne's study in " The Wayside " 187 

Oliver Wendell Holmes 196 



Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

I'AGF. 

Homestead of Oliver Wendell Holmes 197 

An English caricature of Dr. Holmes 200 

Fields, Hawthorne, and Ticknor. (From Hawthorne and his 

Circle, by permission of Harper & Brothers) . . . 203 

Louisa M. Alcott 204 

Donald G. Mitchell. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 205 
Charles Dudley Warner. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library 

of American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 206' 

Home of Charles Dudley Warner at Hartford .... 207 

William H. Prescott 208 

John Lothrop Motley. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library 

of American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 209 

George Bancroft 210 

Francis Parkman 210 

Charles Sumner and Longfellow . . . . . . .211 

Edward Everett Hale 212 

Whitman in 1855 — Frontispiece to first edition of Leaves of Grass 218 

Whitman's birthplace 215 

Whitman at seventy 218 

Richard Henry Stoddard. ( From Stedman & 11 utchmson's Library 

of American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 221 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 223 

George William Curtis. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library 

of American Literature,by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 225 
Henry Ward Beecher. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 225 
William Dean Howells. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library 

<>f . I merican Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 227 

Henry James 229 

Bayard Taylor 2:51 

A "snap-shot" of William Dean Howells and Bayard Taylor. 

(From Howells' Literary Friends ami Acquaintances, by per- 
mission of Harper & Brothers) 232 

Edgar Allan Poe 235 

Poe's cottage at Fordham, New York 2:1!) 

Title-page of Poe's first volume of poems 242 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

PAGE 

William Gilmore Siranis 244 

Henry Timrod 246 

Sidney Lanier . . 248 

Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Newark, N. J., by Gutzon Borglum 251 

Lincoln's birthplace 252 

John Hay 253 

Mark Twain. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of Ameri- 
can Literature, by permission of Mr. VV. E. Benjamin) . 254 

Mark Twain's boyhood home 255 

Bret Harte. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of Ameri- 
can Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) . 259 

Joaquin Miller on his estate 261 

Helen Hunt Jackson 262 

Frank R. Stockton. (From Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of 

American Literature, by permission of Mr. W. E. Benjamin) 285 

Joel Chandler Harris 286 

F. Marion Crawford 288 

Eugene Field 293 



AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECON- 
DARY SCHOOLS 

INTRODUCTION 

Purpose of this Study. — The following chapters are in- 
tended to present a brief outline of American literature, and 
to show how this literature is an expression of American life. 
Every student, before he takes up this book, will have become 
acquainted with many of the better American writings, and 
will probably have learned some facts regarding their authors. 
It is the aim of the present study to show the mutual rela- 
tions of the men and the works that he already knows, to 
introduce him to others, and to give him a view of American 
literature as a continuous development, closely connected 
with the development of the social and political life of the 
nation. 

Periods of American Literature. — For convenience, the 
history of American literature will be divided into five 
periods : 

The first, or Colonial period, extends from 1607, when the 
earliest permanent English settlement was founded at 
Jamestown, to 1765, when the stamp act and other causes 
of political disagreement began to alienate the colonists from 
the mother country. 

The second, or Revolutionary period, from 1765 to 1800, 
covers the time in which the American people were becoming 
independent both in government and in spirit. 

The third period, from 1800 to 1833, was a time of many 
experiments in American letters, and produced, in New York, 

B l 



2 INTRODUCTION 

the first group of American writers who won general recogni- 
tion abroad. 1 

The fourth period, from 1833 to 1883, was marked by the 
advent, especially in New England, of a considerable number 
of distinguished writers, 2 many of whom were concerned with 
the great moral and social questions that were agitating the 
country, while others, both in New England and elsewhere, 
wrote with a more distinctly aesthetic purpose. 

The fifth period, from 1883 to the present, is too close at 
hand to make critical estimates safe. It represents the new 
spirit that has arisen since the unification of the nation after 
the Civil War. 

This division is warranted by the fact that each period is 
distinguished by characteristics and tendencies of its own. 
A national literature is, however, a complex and a continuous 
development, and movements and tendencies never have 
abrupt beginnings or endings. The dates given above are 
convenient halting places in the study of American literary 
history, but no one of them marks an abrupt change in the 
literature itself. 

In connection with each of these periods the student should 
recall all that he has learned from other sources regarding 
English history, English literature, and American history dur- 
ing the same years. He should continually use the chrono- 
logical tables in the appendix to freshen his recollection of 
earlier studies, and to remind him of the relative position of 
writers and historical events. 

1 Irving, Cooper, Bryant, and others. 

2 In New England, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, 
Holmes, Lowell, and others; in other sections of the country, Poe, 
Whitman, and others. 



CHAPTER I 
THE COLONIAL PERIOD 

1(307-1765 

General Chronology. — The Colonial period of American 
literature covers most of the seventeenth and the first two 
thirds of the eighteenth centuries — a period considerably 
longer than that from the Declaration of Independence to 
the present. This period is naturally divided into two un- 
equal subperiods. In the earlier of these the writings pro- 
duced in America were almost wholly the work of men who 
had been born and educated in England and who had emi- 
grated to the colonies ; in the later, American writers were 
most of them born, and the great majority of them educated, 
in the New World. The year 1676 is often chosen, arbitrarily 
of course, to mark the division between these two subperiods. 

During the greater part of the colonial time there were two 
distinct groups of American writers, one in the South, the 
other in New England. In the later years of the period a 
third group appeared in the Middle colonies, particularly 
Pennsylvania. Since these groups had little relation with 
one another it seems best to treat each separately. This 
chapter will, therefore, consider first the writings in the 
Southern colonies, then those in New England, and lastly 
those in the Middle colonies. The student should take es- 
pecial pains to note the relative chronological positions of 
writers in the three different sections of the country. 

3 



4 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Southern Colonial Writings, 1607-1676 

Characteristics of the Southern Colonists. — The . first 
writings that can reasonably be included in a discussion of 
American literature x were produced by the Englishmen who 
founded the Jamestown colony in 1607. These men differed 
widely in wealth, social position, education, and morals, but 



... . 







Jamestown in 1622. 

they agreed in holding the view of life that was characteristic 
of the Elizabethan time. In the later years of Elizabeth 
and the early years of James, Englishmen felt as never before 
a sense of nationality and at the same time a sense of the 

1 It is hardly worth while to quibble over the question whether 
some of these earliest writings are "American" or not. We should 
not include among American authors an Englishman of a later 
date who resided in the country but a few years as did Smith, 
Strachey, and Sandys. With these earlier colonists, however, the 
case seems somewhat different. American literature was an off- 
shoot from English literature ; and at the very beginning some writ- 
ings may be considered as belonging to either the branch or the 
parent stock, or to both. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 5 

worth and importance of the individual. Under the spur 
of these ideas they achieved great results in commerce, explo- 
ration, and colonization, and especially in literature. All 
this is suggested by the names of Drake and Raleigh, of 
Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, Jonson, and many other men 
of action and men of letters who were contemporaries or im- 
mediate predecessors of the first settlers in Virginia. An 
American may feel a certain pride that his national literature 
was an offshoot of English literature at this auspicious time, 
even though he finds that Shakespeare and his greater con- 
temporaries exerted little direct influence on early American 
writings. The Elizabethan writers of London are valued 
most for their work in poetry and the drama. The colonists 
and explorers who were founding a new settlement thousands 
of miles from other white men had little time or inclination 
for these finished forms of composition. When they wrote 
it was in prose, to report their adventures, or to describe their 
new surroundings and the strange people among whom they 
had come. For this reason, if for no other, there is little 
similarity in form between their writings and those of their 
better known English contemporaries. Yet a careful study 
will show that there was often great similarity in spirit and 
outlook on life. 

Some Representative Writers. — A few early Virginian 
writers should be remembered, not as authors of great works, 
but as examples and types of the Elizabethan English- 
American. First among these is the famous Captain John 
Smith. Smith was but twenty-six or twenty-seven years 
old when he came to Jamestown, in 1607, yet he was much 
older in experience than most men of sixty. 1 Though bluff 

1 According to statements in Smith's Autobiography, written late 
in life, his father died when he was a boy, and he deserted a mer- 
chant to whom he was apprenticed and ran away to find his fortune. 



6 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and quarrelsome he was probably the most capable of the new 
colonists. During his stay of three years he took a prominent 
part in the government, superintended the fortification of 
Jamestown, explored the surrounding country, and traded 
and made treaties with the Indians. It is hard to see how 
he found time for writing; but he sent back to England in 
the early summer of 1608 an historical and descriptive manu- 
script which was published in England as A True Relation 
of Virginia, 1 and which has the distinction of being the first 
book written in the English language in America. A little 

He tells of service as a soldier in the Low Countries and France, 
of enforced membership in a pirate crew in the Mediterranean, 
and of still more marvelous adventures in the Far East, where he 
fought against the Turks. Possibly Smith drew on his imagination 
for some details of the narrative which is our only record of these 
early exploits, but it is certain that when he came to America, he 
was a man of vigor, resourcefulness, and experience. Most of his 
account of happenings in Virginia may be verified by reference to 
the writings of others, but there has been much rather profitless 
discussion of the well-known story of his rescue by Pocahontas. 
When Smith made the expedition on which the rescue must have 
taken place, if it took place at all, Pocahontas was a small child ; 
and in the True Relation, written immediately afterward, he says 
nothing of the incident. Later, when Pocahontas had married an 
Englishman and was a social favorite in London, he gave out the 
story. It seems likely that he invented the tale to pay a compli- 
ment to Pocahontas and to, link his own name with that of a social 
celebrity ; but it is possible that the rescue really occurred, and that 
for some unknown reason Smith omitted it from the True Rela- 
tion. 

1 This title, like many others cited in the early part of this history, 
is an abbreviation. It was the custom of the time to make the title- 
page fully descriptive of a book and its contents. Smith's work 
was published as "A True Relation of such occurrences and acci- 
dents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting 
of that Collony, which is now resident in the South part thereof, 
till the last returne from thence." For full titles of other books 
referred to in this chapter see the author's History of American 
Literature, Tyler's History of American Literature during the Colo- 
nial Time, etc. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 




- ' (^Xhefc are theLWCS that flew thy TaCC)hutthofc/ 
That/hew thy Gra.CC and (flory~, Irtcjtiter lev : ' 
d*hy jFai rt-J&lfcoturies and To wlc - Overthrowcs 
Of SalvageS,muchr Civillizd Ijr tfuc^S-^Z 
Hejhjhw thy Spirit; and to it Glory (WjnSL. 
&i),thoitartJZraf?e witfwutfhut Q-olde Within, .. 



Frontispiece to Smith's Map of New England with portrait of 
John Smith. 



8 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

later he completed and sent back a description of the country 
and its inhabitants which was published as A Map of Vir- 
ginia. 

After his return to England in 1609 Smith made a voyage 
of exploration to the coast northward of Cape Cod, anil later 
attempted to found a colony in New England. His expedi- 
tion was captured by French pirates, and after his release he 
lived quietly in England until his death in 1631. In these 




John 



Smith held captive by the Indians. A picture 
an early American school reader. 



from 



later years he wrote much about America and about coloniza- 
tion in general, and he compiled The General Historic of 
Virginia. The only works which he is known to have 
written in America are, however, The True Relation, the 
Map of Virginia, and a long outspoken letter of complaint 
and protest addressed to the proprietors of the colony. 
These writings are what might be expected from an un- 
trained but forceful Elizabethan Englishman. The author 
had no time to think of literary graces, but he had some- 
thing to say, and he said it with the same directness with 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 9 

which he built a fort or fought out a quarrel. Almost every 
line violates some of the rhetorical rules that are recognized 
to-day; and even in his own time, when English prose was 
far less highly developed than English poetry, his style must 
have seemed crude and formless. Still, there are few sen- 
tences that are not perfectly clear and to the point. Some 
of Smith's later works, produced at leisure and after he had 
more experience in writing, show more finish. 

Another sort of Virginian is represented by William 
Strachey, who was appointed secretary of the colony at 
the same time Sir Thomas Gates was named as governor in 
1610. The two officials were fellow-passengers on a vessel 
that suffered shipwreck on the Bermudas, and they endured 
many hardships before they finally reached Jamestown. 
Strachey's only work of importance is an account of this 
experience known as The Wrack and Redemption of Sir 
Thomas Gates. Strachey was not a practiced writer, but he 
was evidently a man of better education and greater ac- 
quaintance with books than Smith. The Wrack and Re- 
demption is a studied and somewhat self-conscious attempt l 
to describe impressive natural phenomena and to tell of 
terrible experiences. Our interest in the work is increased by 
the fact that some scholars believe Shakespeare to have had 
it in mind when he described the storm in the "Tempest." 

Still another Englishman who came to Virginia for a time 

1 Quotations from the Latin poets, references to the narratives 
of other travelers, and formally wrought sentences all show that 
the author was striving for what he considered proper literary im- 
pressiveness. A man who wrote naturally — Smith, for example — 
would have used none of these artificial devices in telling of a ship- 
wreck in which he had himself suffered ; and a man of more literary 
training would have known that they were doubtful expedients for 
gaining force. Still, there is a certain effectiveness in Strachey's 
story. 



10 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

was George Sandys, who was made treasurer of the colony 
in 1621. Sandys was a poet whose name still holds a place 
in histories of English literature, and his office was probably 
bestowed as a reward for his literary achievement. While 
in America, he completed a translation of Ovid which he had 
begun in England. There is, of course, nothing distinctively 
American in the work; and Sandys should be remembered 
only as a reminder of the fact that men of recognized liter- 
ary ability were at times temporary residents of the colonies. 
Types of Southern Writers. — Smith, Strachey, and San- 
dys typify three classes of writers — the blunt adventurer 
who wrote with no thought of form, the gentleman who 
felt obliged by his position to attempt literary produc- 
tion, and the accomplished man of letters who held a tem- 
porary appointment in the colony. Most of the other early 
writers in the South belonged to one of these three classes. 
Those like Smith were the most numerous. At first all Eng- 
land was curious regarding the New World and its people, 
and almost every emigrant who could write sent back in pri- 
vate letters, if not for publication, accounts of his experiences, 
and descriptions of what he saw. This process was repeated 
as each of the Southern colonies was founded. Other early 
writings were as meritorious as those of Smith and Strachey ; 
but since types and not individuals are important, it is not 
necessary to consider them here. 

Southern Colonial Writings, 1676-1765 

Characteristics of the Later Southern Colonists. — After 
the earliest years of the Jamestown colony, Southerners 
wrote less than might be expected from their numbers and 
their importance in American affairs. This was due in part 
to the general lack of education. Both the character of the 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 11 

settlers and the' nature of the country, in which navigable 
rivers constituted ready-made highways, tended to encourage 
the feudal ideal of large estates. The planters lived so far 
apart that they could not send their children to common 
schools, and it was difficult, often impossible, to secure pri- 
vate tutors. Moreover, the Southerner was usually satisfied 
with the existing condition of affairs in church and state, 
and did not, like the New Englander, feel that education was 
necessary to the preservation of his liberties. Some, at least, 
of the royal governors quietly discouraged education, in the 
belief that a people who did not read were more easily gov- 
erned. While there were always some Southern gentlemen 
who had been trained in English schools and universities, 
there were many others of wealth and recognized social posi- 
tion who were almost wholly ignorant of books. Schools 
were few, and there was little or no opportunity for printing. 
Even Southerners of literary tastes felt, as did some of their 
English contemporaries, that literature might be the recrea- 
tion, but never the business, of a gentleman. When they 
wrote, they did so in an amateurish fashion, and instead of 
publishing their writings, kept them in manuscript to be 
shown to their friends and handed down to their children. 1 

As might be expected under such circumstances, later 
Southern writings were very provincial. The Southern far 
more than the Northern colonists looked to England for 
authority in all things. Those who could afford to do so 
imported most articles of furniture and of dress, and of course 
imported such books as they read. Those who were sent 
abroad for education went to England. It was natural that 
there should be no school of Southern authors, but that such 

1 Compare the feeling of the sportsman who will eat his game, 
or present it to his friends, but who will under no circumstances 
sell it. 



12 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

scattered writings as were produced should follow the latest 
literary fashion that had been imported from the mother 
country. This tendency may be illustrated by reference to 
two or three representative works. 

Later Southern Writings. — Bacon's Rebellion, the civil war 
in Virginia in 1675-1670, just at the close of the first period, 
led to the composition of the Burwell Papers. These pa- 
pers, which were found long afterward among the archives of 
an old Virginia family, were evidently written soon after the 
events they relate, by some Virginian who concealed his 
name to insure his personal safety. They tell of the in- 
surrection, and contain two poems, one eulogizing, the other 
condemning, Bacon, the leader who opposed the governor. 
The matter is interesting, but the narrative is in the arti- 
ficial and prolix style that characterized English prose just 
after the Restoration. The verse, too, is in the rhymed 
pentameter couplet which had recently come into favor in 
England. 

Some thirty years later, in 1708, there was published in 
London a humorous poem entitled The Sot-Weed Factor, or 
a Voyage to Maryland, by Eben. Cook, Gent. This poem, 
which has more fame than real importance, is a satirical ac- 
count of the adventures of a " factor " or agent who tried 
to barter for " sot-weed " or tobacco in Maryland. It is 
significant that it is written in the octosyllabic couplet 
which, since the appearance of Butler's Hudibras, 1 had been 
the accepted form for burlesque verse in England. 

1 The characteristics of this satire on the English Puritans, written 
by Samuel Butler between 1663 and 1678, are rather free and even 
coarse ridicule, expressed in a peculiar jigging eight-syllable verse, 
and marked and sometimes Ludicrous rhymes. It is now relatively 
little read, hut was a favorite model for satire, especially political 
satire, in England and America for over a century, and will be 
frequently referred to in this history. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



13 



More important than either of the works just mentioned 
are the writings of William Byrd. Byrd was the head of a 
wealthy and influential Virginia family, and a representa- 
tive of the best type of man that the South produced during 
the early eighteenth century. He had been educated in 
England, and he collected a considerable library. His writ- 
ings, which were not printed in his lifetime, but were carefully 
engrossed on parchment for transmission to his descendants, 
are sometimes called 
the Westover Manu- 
scripts, from the name 
of his family estate. 
They include papers on 
various subjects, the 
most notable being the 
" History of the Divid- 
ing Line." This tells 
of the author's experi- 
ences as one of the 
commissioners who, in 
1728, settled the dis- 
puted boundary be- 
tween Virginia and William Byrd. 
North Carolina, and 

gives interesting, intelligent, and often humorous descrip- 
tions of the wild country through which the survey ran. 
It is pleasant reading even to-day, and though it has been 
somewhat overpraised, is one of the best pieces of writing 
done during the colonial time. A gentleman of Byrd 's train- 
ing was, of course, well read in the writings of Addison, Steele, 
and other English essayists of the early eighteenth century, 
and his style is evidently modeled on theirs. 

The Bur well Papers, the Sot-Weed Factor, and the works 




14 AMEBIC AN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of Byrd were written, speaking very roughly, at intervals 
of about thirty years, and each follows the latest fashion in 
English literature. Other Southern writers of the late 
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries show the same 
imitative tendency. Several of them produced writings of 
importance to the special student. Indeed, Southern colo- 
nial literature is in itself quite as interesting, and has at least 
as much literary merit, as that of the North. It has, however, 
no organic unity and it exerted far less influence on later 
American men of letters than did the writings produced in 
New England. For this reason it may be more hurriedly 
dismissed by the general reader. 

New England Colonial Writings, 1620-1676 

Characteristics of the New England Colonists. — It is in 
no spirit of unpatriotic sectionalism that the student of 
American history remarks the differences which from the first 
existed between the North and the South. The student of 
American literature, in particular, must observe that the 
Englishmen who came to Plymouth in 1620 and to Massachu- 
setts Bay in 1630 differed widely from those who in 1607 had 
come to Jamestown. The early immigrants to the South 
were actuated chiefly by a love of adventure and a desire 
for gain, and many of them, probably most of them, hoped 
to return to England after they had made their fortunes. 
The Pilgrims and the Puritans, though by no means indiffer- 
ent to worldly affairs, came for the purpose of establishing, 
according to their own ideas, a permanent home for them- 
selves and their descendants. Still more important than this 
difference in purpose was the underlying difference in temper 
and view of life. The founders of Virginia were representa- 
tive of that hearty, energetic, pleasure-loving England that 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



15 



produced, as its greatest literary achievement, the Eliza- 
bethan drama. The Puritans x looked upon this world only 
as a preparation for eternal life, and regarded most recrea- 
tions as sin, or as temptations to sin. 2 Such men not only 
failed to sympathize with the thoughts and writings of the 
representative Elizabethans, but they condemned such 
thoughts and writings as evil. It is hard to realize that two 




Pilgrims landing from the Mayflower. A picture from an 
early American geography. 

groups of Englishmen who were so nearly contemporaries 
could differ so widely as did these early colonists of the 
North and the South. 

Most of the good and the bad characteristics of New Eng- 
land colonial literature can be traced to the characteristics 

1 Throughout this discussion the word "Puritans" will often be 
used to include both Puritans and Pilgrims. 

2 There is a certain truth in Macaulay's unfair remark that the 
Puritans hated bear-baiting not because it gave pain to the bear, 
but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. It was not that 
the Puritan disliked to see people happy ; but he suspected nearly 
everything that gave happiness of being some wile of the Devil to 
distract the Christian's thoughts from his soul's salvation. 



16 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



of these early settlers. Earnestness, cleanness, soundness 
of moral judgment, and regard for truth were due to the 
more admirable traits of the authors; on the other hand the 
artistic limitations in both kind and quality of writing came 
from the peculiar narrowness of the Puritans. Since these 
men rejected as dangerous the works of the greater Eliza- 
bethan poets and dramatists, their reading was mainly in the 
preachers and pamphleteers who supported their peculiar 
beliefs; and from these unfortunate models they derived 
their literary style. True, they were constant students of 

the Bible, and some 
of the better quali- 
ties of New Eng- 
land prose can be 
traced to the influ- 
ence of the noble 
King James ver- 
sion; but their rev- 
erence for the 
sacredness of the 
scripture was so 
great that they 
seem to have been strangely oblivious to its literary beauties. 
The Puritans were the champions of a theological system 
that was continually assailed, and they felt that their chil- 
dren must be educated in order to defend their faith. They 
established public schools in every community. They founded 
Harvard College when the colony of Massachusetts Bay 
was but six years old. They set up a printing press soon 
afterward. Every one not only could read but did read; 
and a considerable number of colonists tried their hands at 
such forms of writing as the law and public sentiment per- 
mitted. 




Schoolhouse at Dedham, Massachusetts; built 
in 1649. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 17 

The Early Historians. — The first form of writing in any 
new settlement is history, or that which furnishes the basis 
for history. Ordinarily this takes the form, as it did in Vir- 
ginia, of personal narratives of experiences, written for the 
most part to satisfy the curiosity of readers in the mother 
country. The New Englander believed, however, that he 
was founding a great commonwealth under the direct guid- 
ance of God, and men of weight in the community felt it 
their duty to leave a careful record for posterity. Thus, 
William Bradford, governor of Plymouth, wrote a His- 
tory of Plymouth Plantation, mostly in the form of annals, 
that traces the rise of the dissenters in England, their experi- 
ences in Holland, and their coming to America in the May- 
flower, and continues the history of the settlement from 1G20 
to 1647. John Wintiirop, the first governor of the colony 
of Massachusetts Bay, kept a detailed journal from 1630 
to 1649, since published as The History of New England. 
Neither of these writers gave his work to the public in his 
lifetime, not because of any false ideas of the dignity of 
authorship, but because he was writing for later readers who 
would gladly know every act of their forefathers. 1 . 

Neither Bradford's nor Winthrop's history is great as litera- 
ture. Both men are likely to be at their best in calm pas- 
sages where they catch something of the dignity of scriptural 
prose. Winthrop had the better education and the broader 
experience of life, but the diary form which he employed 

1 Bradford's manuscript had an interesting history. It descended 
through various hands until the Revolution, when it disappeared 
during the British occupation of Boston, and was given up by 
scholars as lost. In 1855 it was discovered in the library of the 
Bishop of London, and in 1897 it was restored, with appropriate 
ceremonies on both sides of the Atlantic, to the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. It was first printed in 1856, almost two hundred 
years after the author's death, 
c 



18 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



gave little chance for effective writing. In the works of both 
men the modern reader is interested in the contemporary 
accounts of important historical events, and even more, 
perhaps, in the mention of trivial happenings that help to 
portray the daily life of the people. The sufferings of the 

colonists, the 
makeshift ar- 
rangements by 
which they first 
met the need for 
shelter and food, 
their adven- 
tures, serious and 
ludicrous, with 
Indians and wild 
animals, their 
experiences in 
farming and 
stock-raising, 
even their un- 
edifying church 
and neighbor- 
hood quarrels — 
all may be learned 
from these his- 
tories, and the 
knowledge helps to a better understanding of the kind of 
men our ancestors really were. Especially valuable to the 
student are passages that show religious faith and the implic- 
itness of the belief that every occurrence, however small, 
reveals in a direct way the hand of God. 

There were many other historical writers in early New 
England, some of whom published their works at once, either 




John Winthrop. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 19 

at home or in the mother country, but Bradford and Winthrop 
may serve as representatives of all. 

For the sake of contrast, mention should be made of 
Thomas Morton, who for a time maintained a trading post 
at Merry Mount, near Plymouth. Morton was a church- 
man and a loyalist, a rollicking, irreverent individual who 
had only ridicule and contempt for his straight-laced neigh- 
bors, and who annoyed them in many ways. In retaliation 
they arrested him and sent him to England, where he was 
speedily released. Before he returned to renew his quarrel at 
close quarters he wrote the New English Canaan, an historical 
and descriptive account of New England which puts the 
Puritans in a bad light. Morton was prejudiced and untrust- 
worthy, but his lively book forms a diverting contrast to the 
plodding writings of his neighbors, and incidentally shows 
how the fathers of New England appeared to their contem- 
poraries who did not like them. 1 

Religious Writings. — Even more representative of New 
England than historical writings were those on religious 
and theological subjects. The first New Englanders, though 

1 Morton had a cheap but clever humor which he exercised at the 
expense of the Puritans. He continually referred to the worthy but 
diminutive Miles Standish as "Captain Shrimp," and he had equally 
disrespectful nicknames for other dignitaries of the colony. He 
was fond of anecdotes like that of the guest who fell to and ate the 
best part of the feast while his host, with closed eyes, was saying 
a long New England grace. It was Morton, too, who originated the 
old story that when an active young man had killed an Indian, the 
Puritans hanged an old bedridden weaver to appease the savages, 
since the real murderer was too useful a man to be spared. 

One of Morton's most annoying offenses was the setting up of a 
Maypole — an "idle or idol May-pole," as Governor Bradford calls 
it. The picturesqueness of Morton's settlement, and the contrast 
that he suggests between two types of Englishman have appealed 
to many later writers. See, for example, Hawthorne's tale, "The 
Maypole of Merry Mount." 



20 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



horrified at the idea of a priesthood with temporal authority, 
were really governed by their ministers. In a community 
which sought to know the will of God regarding every act 
it was natural that much weight should be given to the 
opinions of men specially trained in interpreting the scrip- 
tures. The ministers were consulted by legislators and 
governors, they sat beside the judges on the bench, and in 



[["■"■"""""■llll ' iniinniiiiiimnuiu|ii m 




J" immmiimiiH in..~ 



Ntoh did vjew 
Theold world h new. 



Young 0laif4i l 
David^JcJuu, 
All were ploiu, 

Ptttr den/d 

His Lord and cry'd. 

Queen Efthn lues. 
And feye* (he Jnm. 

Young pious #*/*, 
Left aJl for Truth. 



Young Smtmt/dev, 
The Lard JidiW. 



Puges from the New England Primer. 

many ways, open and private, they influenced public affairs. 
In general they were a body of men worthy the confidence 
they received. Most of them, in the early years, were 
graduates of English universities, and many of them had 
distinguished themselves as scholars and preachers in Eng- 
land. Their publications were mostly sermons and pam- 
phlets, but, as may be guessed from the scope of their activi- 
ties, they did not confine themselves wholly to theological 
questions. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



21 



Probably the most notable of the early New England 
divines was John Cotton, who came to Massachusetts Bay 
in 1633, and ministered to the first church of Boston until 
his death. 1 Only a little less famous than Cotton were 
Thomas Hooker and Thomas Shepard. Hooker first 
preached at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, and then, with his congregation, 
marched through the wilderness and 
founded the town of Hartford, Con- 
necticut. Shepard succeeded Hooker 
in the pulpit at Cambridge. Cotton, 
Hooker, and Shepard, as well as many 
others almost as famous in their day, 
were graduates of the University of 
Cambridge, and had been preachers of 
distinction in England before they 
were expelled by Archbishop Laud for 
nonconformity. 

It is somewhat hard to see, from 
'reading the works of these men, where- 
in their power consisted. Their pub- 
lished writings were largely sermons, 
often with such uninspiring titles as " The Saint's Dig- 
nity and Duty," "A Treatise concerning Predestination." 
These were long discussions — two hours was an ordinary 

1 Cotton was a famous Puritan preacher in England — so famous 
that even before there was any thought of his coming to America the 
town of Boston, Massachusetts, was named in his honor after Boston, 
England, where he preached. Naturally the citizens saw a special 
dispensation of Providence in the fact that he was afterward brought 
among them. Cotton is credited with a hand in the preparation 
of the Neiv England Primer which was used by beginners in learning 
for over a century and a half ; and he was the author of the famous 
catechism for children commonly known by the abbreviated title 
of Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes. 




Statue of Thomas Hooker 
at Hartford. 



22 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



THE 

SIMPLE COBLER 



To help "mend his Native Country, Jn- 

meauWy uctacd.both in the upper- Lrnlier 

2nd (olcwuhalhheliondl (..« Iks hecin laic. 

■ An-i a* willing never to bee piid for his work, 

by Oii E/iglifb wonurJ pay. 
[ Jr u f>u TrUt f» /uui* 4/? ri* jr v Uxg, gcatu. 
Thntftirel pt»j> Genileffienkecpyouiputfw, 



length for a sermon, and four hours was not unknown ; and 
they were divided into numbered headings and subheadings 
for the convenience of the hearers, many of whom brought 
pencil and paper to church and took notes. A few, which 
were intended to arouse apathetic sinners, contained vivid 
descriptions of the tortures awaiting lost souls in the next 
world; but the greater number were theological and ap- 
pealed to the intellect rather than 
to the emotions. 

The ministers also wrote con- 
troversial pamphlets, many of 
which resembled the sermons in 
subjects and form. 1 One, the 
Simple Cobler of Aggawamm, by 
Nathaniel Ward, is peculiar 
enough to be a literary curiosity. 
Ward had been a lawyer and had 
seen something of the world before 
he came to America in 1634 and 
served for three years as pastor 
of the church at Agawam, now 
Ipswich. The Simple Cobler, 
which was published in London in 1647, is a tirade against 
toleration in religious belief, and against many other things 
of which the author disapproved, among them the fashions 
in women's dress and the wearing of long hair by the men. 
It was really addressed to English rather than to American 
readers, and was calculated to influence the unthinking 



boom lai iWitit mc cf to the Ittu. 



1 E^l.k, 
Co!>bnm4t Utraft thcffiwia) 
TkaanettatioltiK Aftt, jm* 



,. Pitted fc, ;.r>. ft*./, tot JvfU.wwf.K Ac fipKoftW 
IH.r « Papa Hrtt-AScr, 1*47. 



Title-page of The Simple 
Cobler. 



1 Many of these controversies were over abstruse theological 
points, or such questions as the proper mode of baptism. Others 
were over such matters as the right of women to sing in churches 
— one party taking the admonition in I Cor. xiv : 34 with extreme 
literalness, another holding that it applied only to speaking. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 23 

London rabble rather than the more earnest New Englanders. 
The author's method is one of bitter ridicule and vitupera- 
tion, and he is fond of using long and barbarously coined 
words to characterize the things that he disapproves. 1 The 
ideas expressed in the Simple Cobler are contemptible for 
their narrowness, and the style is by no means typical of 
the New England controversialists; but its oddities have 
given it a certain notoriety while duller though more impor- 
tant pamphlets are forgotten. 

Verse Writing in Early New England. — Aside from his- 
torical, religious, and controversial prose little was written in 
New England during the early years. There was no drama, 
no fiction, and practically nothing in the form of prose essays 
— these forms were regarded with abhorrence, or at least 
with distrust — and in poetry there were only a few crude 
attempts. It is true that many persons wrote verse, often, 
it would seem, for no other reason than to vary the monotony 
of their prose. Even Governor Bradford, who was surely 
far from being a poet, wrote in rhymes of the geography and 
the natural products of New England. 2 Perhaps the most 
common use of verse was in memorials of the dead, and 
there have come down to us many epitaphs and rhymed 
obituaries at which even the most reverent reader is tempted 
to smile. 



1 Thus, in speaking of fashions in dress he says: "It is a most 
unworthy thing, for men that have bones in them, to spend their 
lives in making fidle-eases for ftitulous womens phansies ; which 
are the very pettitoes of Infirmity, the giblets of perquisquilian 
toyes." 

2 A few lines chosen at random will serve as an illustration : 

"All sorts of grain which our own land doth yield, 
Was hither brought, and sown in every field : 
As wheat and rye, barley, oats, beans, and pease 
Here all thrive, and they profit from them raise." 



24 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Another peculiar specimen of versification owed its exist- 
ence to the feeling that the translation of the Psalms which 
was sung by the English Puritans was not sufficiently literal. 
Accordingly, the ministers appointed a committee of their 
number to prepare a version which should adhere strictly 
to the original Hebrew, and which could be used with the 
tunes then in vogue. The result of their labors was the 
Bay Psalm Book, which was published at Cambridge in 1640, 
and which, it may be noted, was the first book printed in 
New England. Nothing illustrates better than the Bay 
Psalm Book the way in which the Puritan's beliefs influenced 
his view of literary excellence. Since the Bible was the word 
of God, the word must be preserved in literal exactness at 
whatever cost. In order to secure accuracy the translators 
willingly sacrificed not only beauty of verse form, but all the 
simple dignified expression of feeling that abounds so wonder- 
fully in the King James version. 1 

Three Massachusetts poets who wrote toward the close of 
the period deserve brief mention. The best of these was 
Anne Bradstreet, the daughter of Governor Dudley and 
the wife of Governor Bradstreet. She was born in England 
and came to America with her father and her husband in 

1 Compare two verses from the ninety-fifth Psalm : 

"Because hee is our God, & wee 
his pasture people are, 
& of his hands the sheep : today 

if yee his voyce will heare, 
As in the provocation, 

o harden not your heart : 
as in day of temptation, 
within the vast desart." 

Still better, if you have access to a reprint of the Bay Psalm Book, 
find how some of your favorite passages of the Psalms are trans- 
lated. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



25 



1630. Although she was the mother of eight children and per- 
formed all the numerous duties of a New England housewife, 
she found time to write a considerable body of verse. Several 
of her poems were published in London in 1650 with the un- 
fortunate title — for which the modest Mrs. Bradstreet was 
not at all responsible — of The 
Tenth Muse lately Sprung up in 
America. The longer poems, 
such as "The Four Monarchies," 
" The Four Elements," " The 
Four Ages of Man," are rhymed 
history, rhymed science, and 
rhymed moralizing, and they 



THE 

TENTH MUSE 

Lately fprung up in America. 

OK 
Severall Poems, compiled 

ith great variety of Wit 
and Learnin&full of delight 
Wherein Specially is contained a eom- 
pleat dilcourfe and flV 



tri|>ti< 



The 1". 



/ 



The \%S*i, 
t Dialogue between Old Etigtt. 



ti^-T^-?~T J X t ^V-^^^'S!Jf~*2 J TJ$ J S~V^-?^-y^ J &¥^^ 



Title-page of Anne J3radstreet's 
first volume of poems. 



illustrate the Puritan feeling 
that literature to be worth while 
must definitely teach something. 
But Mrs. Bradstreet also wrote 
a few short poems that are not 
inartistically done. Of these the 
best is probably " Contempla- 
tions." 

More famous in his own day 
was Michael Wigglesworth, for many years pastor of 
the church at Maiden, Massachusetts. Wigglesworth's 
chief work was the Day of Doom, a long poem in jigging 
eight-line stanzas, which describes the last judgment and 
expounds in rhyme many of the doctrines of Calvinism. 1 
The theme is a noble one, but the poem is little better than 
doggerel. 

It is a sad fact that the Day of Doom had a degree of popu- 
larity probably never attained by any other American poem. 

1 Each class of sinners — for example, the heathen who never 
heard of Christ, and the infants who died at birth — is allowed to 



26 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

For over a hundred years it was read by every devout New 
Englander, and many persons, young and old, knew its two 
hundred and eight stanzas by heart. It must have had a 
considerable influence in continuing the low standard of 
poetry which it represents. 

A third writer of verse was Peter Folger, Nantucket 
farmer and land surveyor, a man with little education, but 
with decided views of his own. In 1675, at the very close of 
the first colonial period, he wrote " A Looking Glass for the 
Times," a ballad in which he expressed frankly his opinions 
of the ministers and the magistrates — so frankly, indeed, 
that he evidently thought it prudent not to publish the poem. 
As poetry, Folger 's work is beneath notice, but it serves to 
remind us that from the first there lived in New England 
a large number of plain, rude, hard-headed men who thought 
for themselves, though they wrote and published little, and 
whose views were often at variance with those of the rulers 
in church and state. It will be found that at a later date 

plead its cause, and each is answered by the Judge. This gives an 
opportunity to state many of the objections often raised against 
Calvinism, and to give in easily remembered rhymes the arguments 
by which these objections were met. A few lines of the answer to 
the infants, who protested against being condemned for Adam's 
sin, runs : 

"Would you have griev'd to have receiv'd 
through Adam so much good, 
As had been your for evermore, 

if he at first had stood ? 
Would you have said, 'We ne'er obey'd 

nor did thy laws regard ; 
It ill befits with benefits, 
us, Lord, to so reward ? ' 

"Since then to share in his welfare, 
you could have been, content , 
You may with reason share in his treason, 
and in the punishment." 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 27 

these practical Yankees exerted a great influence on the in- 
tellectual life of America — an influence typified in the 
career of Folger's most distinguished grandson, Benjamin 
Franklin. 

New England Colonial Writings, 1676-1765 

General Conditions in the Later Colonial Period. — The 

same literary deficiencies that were noticed in the early period 
of New England were characteristic of all but the latest years 
of the second period. Unlike the Southerners, the New 
Englanders isolated themselves as far as possible from Eng- 
land. Except for the few years when Cromwell's party was 
in control in the mother country both political and religious 
considerations urged the New England Puritan to live his 
own life, to supply his own wants. In literature, in particu- 
lar, the New Englander kept almost unchanged the unfor- 
tunate ideals with which he started in 1620. No copy of 
Shakespeare was offered for sale in New England for more 
than a hundred years after the settlement of Plymouth; 
and later writers of merit had almost as little influence as 
the Elizabethans. Even Milton, Puritan though he was, 
seems to have been neglected in New England until well 
into the eighteenth century. While a few writings of dis- 
tinction were produced in New England between 1676 and 
1765, it may be doubted if the average of literary merit 
was as high as in the earlier period. The graduates of 
Harvard College were hardly so well equipped for authorship 
as were the early ministers who had been trained in the 
English universities. 

Historical Writings. — As in the first colonial period, his- 
torical and religious prose was produced in abundance. The 
nature of many historical writings was determined by the 



28 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

French and Indian Wars, the troubles with the Indians 
which broke out about 1G76, and continued at intervals until 
the Revolution. Some of these narratives were written only 
to gratify seasonable curiosity. Others were intended to con- 
demn or defend the dealings of the government with the In- 
dians. Still others, among them an interesting history by 
Increase Mather, aimed to show that the Lord was using the 




A night attack by the Indians. A picture from an early 
American school reader. 



savages to punish the people for lack of religious zeal. These 
histories were important as a group, but their names and their 
authors need not be given here. 

The most interesting of the writings called forth by the 
Indian troubles were those which recounted the experiences 
of persons who were held as prisoners by the savages, and who 
were afterward ransomed or made their escape. There were 
many of these, but two are especially famous. One is the 
narrative of Mary Rowlandson, wife of the pastor at Lan- 
caster, Massachusetts, who was taken prisoner in 1G7G. The 
other, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion, is the work of 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 29 

the Reverend John Williams, minister at Deerfield, who was 
captured and taken to Canada in 1704. Both these authors 
wrote ostensibly to show the goodness which God manifested 
toward them, and they probably adhered strictly to facts. 
This can hardly be said of some writers who followed them. 
In an age when there were no novels and romances, narra- 
tives like these furnished the nearest equivalent for the 
" Wild W T est " stories and the tales of adventure that have 
gratified a later generation. Throughout the eighteenth 
century there were many of these accounts of captivity; 
and though they were usually written by clergymen or were 
accompanied by a testimonial from the pastor of the author, 
many of them were evidently colored to make the story at- 
tractive and exciting. They probably stood in a closer re- 
lation than has been supposed to the Indian tales of a later 
date. 

The second colonial period in New England also produced 
historians who were not especially concerned with Indian 
warfare. The greatest of these was Thomas Prince, pastor 
of the Old South Church, Boston, who apparently had more 
of the spirit of the modern historian than any other American 
of the colonial time. Thomas Hutchinson, the last royal 
governor of Massachusetts, also collected documents and 
wrote a valuable history of Massachusetts Bay. The student 
of American literature need not trouble himself much about 
either of these men ; but they are a reminder that the histori- 
cal spirit, shown in the seventeenth century by Bradford and 
Winthrop and in the nineteenth by Bancroft, Prescott, 
Motley, Parkman, and others, was always strong in New 
England. 

Of the men who left material of value to the later historian 
the most important was Judge Samuel Sewall, whose 
diary covers the period from 1673 to 1729. After his gradua- 



30 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

tion from Harvard, Sewall was college librarian, then studied 
for the ministry, and finally entered business and politics. 
Among other public positions he held the office of probate 
judge, and as such took part in the trials for witchcraft at 
Salem. His public avowal of repentance for this part, at a 
time when most of his associates maintained that they were 
in the right, is an act that showed bravery and nobility of 
character. Judge Sewall was a fine type of New Englander, 
and our liking for him is not diminished by the frank revela- 
tion which his diary gives of various foibles and weaknesses. 
Few writings produced in the colonial time are more interest- 
ing than this gossipy diary, or more valuable to the student 
of colonial life and customs. 

Religious Writings. — The position of the ministers in 
New England changed somewhat during the second colonial 
period. As the people became more prosperous in a worldly 
way, they tended to become less devout, and to pay less at- 
tention to the advice of their spiritual leaders. Under the 
new charter of Massachusetts, granted by William and Mary, 
the right to vote was not based, as before, on church member- 
ship, but on a property qualification. This change tended 
to weaken the power of the clergy in political affairs. Much 
of the writing of the ministers during the later seventeenth 
and early eighteenth centuries was in protest, direct and in- 
direct, against this decrease in their influence. From the 
many learned divines of the time three stand out with 
especial prominence — Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, 
and Jonathan Edwards. 

Increase Mather (1639-1723) and his son Cotton (1663- 
1728) were the leaders in the fight to retain the old-time power 
of the church. Increase Mather was the son of a distin- 
guished Massachusetts clergyman, and his wife was a 
daughter of John Cotton. After receiving his education at 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



31 



Harvard and in Dublin, he was called to the pulpit of the Old 
North Church, Boston, where he and his son preached for 
nearly seventy years. He was also for some years president 
of Harvard College. In 1688 he was sent to England as spe- 
cial representative of the colony, and was instrumental 
in securing the new colonial charter. His son Cotton, though 
long regarded as the leading intellectual light of New England, 
had a less eventful career. After his graduation from Har- 
vard, he was settled as col- 
league of his father, and he 
continued his connection 
with the Old North Church 
until his death. 

When in 1692 the witch- 
craft excitement broke out 
at Salem, both Increase and 
Cotton Mather were greatly 
interested. They believed, 
as did the majority of edu- 
cated men of the time, that 
there might be witches, and 
both of them wrote in sup- 
port of this belief. Cotton 
Mather took part in the dis- 
covery and trial of the accused persons. Much has been 
written on the motives which actuated the Mathers in 
this affair. The fact seems to be that, while their inclina- 
tions led them to be overcredulous, they were conscientious. 
Reference has already been made to the history which In- 
crease Mather wrote in 1677 to show that the Indian wars 
were sent by God to punish the people for lack of faith. 
By the time of the Salem excitement the people were still 
more inclined to treat lightly religion and the ministerial 









jferf^ 


%^- 


w 








i^i 


fm 


*w 


5r- '.; 


m 



Cotton Mather. 



32 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

authority. It was probably natural that the Mathers should 
be ready to believe that God had permitted the scourge of 
witchcraft as a still more awful warning, and it is surely 
natural that if they believed this they should make the most, 
in sermons and writings, of so powerful an argument. 

Both Increase and Cotton Mather were voluminous writers. 
The father is said to have published more than one hundred 
and fifty separate works, and the son is credited with more 
than four hundred. Many of these were sermons and small 
pamphlets, but others were of great bulk. One of the most 
interesting, though not the most valuable, of Increase 
Mather's books is his Essay for the Recording of Illustrious 
Providences, in which he tells many stories of the direct in- 
tervention of God in human affairs. This was published in 
1684, but it shows the same pious credulity that was mani- 
fested in the witchcraft delusions a few years later. 

The bulkiest and probably the most important of Cotton 
Mather's many writings is the Magna! ia Christi Americana, 
or Ecclesiastical History of Neic England, published in Lon- 
don in 1702. This tells of the settlement of New England 
and of the establishment and experiences of the churches, 
and gives brief biographies of the governors and of many 
famous ministers. It was written too hurriedly to be wholly 
accurate, but it is the only authority for many facts in early 
New England history. Another work often referred to is the 
Wonders of the Invisible World, in which Cotton Mather 
philosophizes over witchcraft in general, and gives some ac- 
count of the happenings at Salem as he saw them. 

To many readers to-day the Essay for the Recording of 
Illustrious Providences and the Wonders of the Invisible 
World are the most interesting writings of Increase and 
Cotton Mather, respectively. One who judges these in the 
light of modern science is likely to form the erroneous idea 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



33 



SEhingi for a Pig;cf»'opcople tottrtnh upon. 



that the authors were absurdly superstitious and unreasoning. 
As a matter of fact their beliefs regarding witchcraft were 
shared by the great mass of educated men throughout the 
world, and both in intellectual power and in learning they 
ranked high among the English-speaking divines of their age. 
They were interested not only in theology but in such science 
as was then known, 1 and in all 
the practical affairs of life; and 
they wrote much that tended 
toward the social betterment of 
the people. Increase Mather, in 
particular, was a man of sanity 
and balance, who had much ex- 
perience in the world and under- 
stood life. His literary style is 
not remarkable, but he usually 
wrote simply and plainly. Cot- 
ton Mather was probably abler 
and was certainly more learned 
then his father, but he had been 
somewhat spoiled as a youth , and 
he never had the experience of 
travel and intercourse with men 
that would have helped him to 
a saner estimate of his own im- 
portance. His writings, while they have certain formal liter- 
ary merits, are often crowded with pedantic displays of 



Offered in the 

SERMON 

To the General Affemlly of me Province, 

of the M.ijf.uhufitts-Bay, at the 

Anniverfary ELECTION. 

friay, fj. 16)6. 

Wherein, 

t The Condition of the Future, as well 
as the Former^ TIMES, in which we 
are concerned, is Confidered. 

II. A, Narrative of the late Wonderful 
• Deliverance, of the KING, and the 
three KINGDOMS & allthe Englifii 
DOMINIONS, is Endeavoured. 

HI. A R elation, of no lefs than SE V EN M I 
RAGLES, within this little while wrought 
by the Almighty Lord %t (U0 Ctjtitl, tor 
the Confirmatian of our Hopes, that iome 
G/oTOwA/'i>rfj,lortheweH'areofHisChu;cli J 
are quickly to be done, is annexed. 



fly COTTON MOTHER. 



Bofitm in N £ Printed by B Cm, and 7. Alkn t 

for Dtiaean Cjynphci at his Shop owr-againft 

/the Old-Mtelinz.Houfe 1696. 

Title-page of a sermon by 
Cotton Mather. 



1 Cotton Mather corresponded with some of the most noted 
scientists of England. At one time he incurred great popular dis- 
like because he favored inoculation for the smallpox, which before 
the discovery of vaccination was the most effective method of re- 
ducing the dangers of the disease. Many persons regarded it as 
wrong, since, they said, it was an attempt to interfere in a matter 
that should be left to Providence. 



34 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

learning, far-fetched allusions, high-sounding words, and 
quotations from foreign languages. Both the Mathers, 
and especially Cotton, were men of the sort that one is 




Jonathan Edwards. 



always tempted to praise or to blame indiscriminately, and 
the student should take pains to note both their good and 
their bad qualities. 

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) lived and wrote a few 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 35 

years later than the Mathers, when the question of ministe- 
rial power had taken on a slightly different aspect. A period 
of comparative religious apathy was followed about 1735 or 
1740 by an emotional religious revival known as the Great 
Awakening. One of the earliest manifestations of this revival 
was in Edwards's parish at Northampton, Massachusetts, 
and Edwards published an account of it commonly known 
as Narrative of Surprising Conversions. About the time of 
these revivals there was an increase in the number of sermons 
which pictured the torments of the wicked in the future life. 
Edwards delivered several of these, and one, entitled " Sin- 
ners in the Hands of an Angry God " is especially famous. 
It was not really, however, as an emotional exhorter that 
Jonathan Edwards was most important. The greater num- 
ber of his sermons were models of clear intellectual reasoning 
on questions of theology and practical religion, and his master- 
piece, the so-called Treatise on the Freedom of the Will, 1 is 
still thought by many critics to be the greatest work on meta- 
physics by an American author. His power comes from his 
apparent intellectual honesty, his directness of thought, and 
a sort of liquid clearness of style that is in marked contrast 
to the involved and turgid sentences of Cotton Mather. 
He had, too, a fine personal quality, and a poetic feeling 
which are seldom shown in his philosophical treatises or his 
harsh threats of future punishment. The careful student 
will find him the strongest and the most fascinating figure in 
the New England colonies. 

Other Forms of Writing. — During much of the second 
colonial period the attitude of the New Englander toward 

1 In this he discusses the apparent conflict between the belief 
that God determines every event, however small, and the belief 
that man is free to choose between good and evil actions, and is 
responsible for his choice. 



36 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

polite letters continued the same as in the early seventeenth 
century. There was no drama, and no avowed fiction, 
though as has been seen accounts of experiences among the 
Indians probably stretched the truth. The Restoration 
prose and the verse of Butler and of Dryden, which set the 
literary fashions in the South, found for many years no 
imitators in New England. Even the writers of Queen 
Anne's time seem to have passed unnoticed. Toward the 
end of the period, however, a few young men took to writing 
verse in the heroic couplet and essays in the manner of the 
Spectator. Generally speaking, however, the influence of 
Butler, Pope, and Addison was not strongly shown in New 
England until the Revolutionary period. 

Writings in the Middle Colonies 

General Conditions. — The Middle colonies were founded 
so late that for them there was virtually but one period in 
the colonial time. Indeed, though there was some writing 
in New York and New Jersey, it was only in Pennsylvania 
that any notable results in literature were achieved before 
the Revolution. 

Pennsylvania resembled the South in the fact that men 
were free to read all kinds of English literature; in the more 
favored parts it resembled New England in the attention 
given to education, in facilities for printing, and in the fact 
that in Philadelphia a considerable number of men with 
literary tastes were so closely associated that they could 
stimulate each other. It may be helpful to remember that 
the greatest Philadelphia author was a native of Boston who 
came in early youth into the freer atmosphere of the Penn- 
sylvania city. 

Franklin and his Associates. — Benjamin Franklin was 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 37 

a grandson of Peter Folger, who has already been mentioned, 
and his family were typical representatives of the class of 
practical men to which Folger belonged. His early life 
should be learned from his Autobiography, and only the 
barest outline can be given here. His father, a hardworking 
maker of soap and candles in Boston, reared a family of seven- 
teen children, and was naturally forced to practice in the 
strictest fashion the virtues of thrift and economy. At the 
age of twelve Benjamin, a bright but probably conceited boy, 
was set to learn the printer's trade. A little later he found 
an odd volume of the Spectator, and deliberately took this 
as the model for his prose style. At the age of seventeen 
he ran away to Philadelphia, where by his cleverness and 
industry he rose to a place of distinction in the community. 
He took a leading part in many movements, such as those to 
establish a public library, and a fire company, to improve the 
police system, and to found a college. 1 He published a news- 
paper, a magazine, and a series of almanacs, and he did so 
much for the art of printing that the printers of America 
have ever since observed his birthday as that of a patron 
saint. At the same time he dabbled in political affairs, and 
conducted the experiments that showed the identity of 
lightning and electricity. At the age of forty-two he had 
amassed enough property to warrant his retirement from 
business, and he planned to devote the rest of his life to scien- 
tific research. His reputation for practical sense and skill 
in managing men was so great, however, that his fellow- 
citizens continually called for his assistance during the 
troubled times that soon began, and until his death in 1790, 
at the age of eighty-four, he was almost continually occupied 
in political affairs at home and abroad. He was member of 
the assembly, postmaster general, agent for Pennsylvania 

1 Now the University of Pennsylvania. 



38 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




Benjamin Franklin. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 



39 



■ Poor Richard, -1 75-3 . 



at London, member of the congress that adopted the Declara- 
tion of Independence, special commissioner to France during 
the Revolution, and member of the constitutional convention. 

One of Franklin's biographers has happily called him 
" The Many-sided Franklin." He was statesman, scientist, 
inventor, and business man, as well as man of letters. He 
was greater in some of these other 
fields of activity than in literature, 
and his literary taste was defective ; 
yet he has left the earliest writings 
which hold unquestioned rank as 
American classics. 

For the student of literature three 
works stand out from the mass of 
Franklin's writings — the "Poor 
Richard Sayings," the Autobiog- 
raphy, and the " Bagatelles." The 
" Poor Richard Sayings " were first 
published in Poor Richard's Almanac, 
which Franklin edited while he was 
a printer in Philadelphia. Later he 
wove some of them into a supposed 
speech which was sometimes called 
" The Address of Father Abraham," 
and sometimes " The Way to 

Wealth." The class of New Englanders from which Franklin 
was descended had always shown a fondness for proverbs 
and neat sayings, fostered, perhaps, by their habit of quoting 
Bible phrases; and Franklin had a remarkable genius for 
making new proverbs and putting old ones into lasting form. 1 

1 Among the many familiar sayings of Poor Richard are : 
"God helps those that help themselves." 
"One to-day is worth two to-morrows." 



Almanack 

Foi the Yoai of Chrift 
3cing the Firftafrrr I EAP YEAR: 

WfcJ -J»t, /— .h, r^/ru. Yf.rl 

Bjlht Actoj... <,! .ho g »,.„ Cntii ,] 4 i 

8, clx: Ut.o Oo.ch. .tn O <n. r (Soil 

B. <h: Owpui.nsi.of WW S 'J, 

By .he R«r.» Ch,o™l W y , g, 

■ RilNn <uu 



Fittcdtothc Laritadcol Font DtLm 

aid, « Mcqdin <>•' Fi.rHoo.. Writ IV,^*^,' 
but JMj. .phc-Jt fa>CMs E..o, <- nc ,(|',k, ^j. 
j«sm Plao, «.co Go m 'wajWf^Js^tfc- 

Hy RlCH/tROSJl/SPflji,, fhi\cm. 



PHILADRLPBH: 

Punted and fold br 6 FAJH&L/S. a 
tW ing Oftw or.i ihe Mj '^- 
TU Thud JropizRao. 



Title-pag? of Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac. 



40 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY .SCHOOLS 



VARIOUS SUBJECTS. 

WITH THE 

PRINCE of PARTHIA, 



The Autobiography, in a literary way the most important 
of Franklin's works, was written so late in life that it belongs, 
strictly speaking, to the Revolutionary period; but it tells 
the story of the author's life only to 1757. This delightful 
narrative, which every American should surely read, owes 
its charm in part to the subject matter, and in part to the 
wonderful simplicity and frankness with which it is written. 
^__^ T __ t^ t%^.t^ti /rn Few things are more difficult 

JUVENILE POEMS than for an author to speak 

of himself without appearing 
either conceited or falsely 
modest. Franklin avoided 
both dangers by being always 
wholly natural. 

The " Bagatelles," the 
least important of the three 
works mentioned, are short 
sketches written by Franklin 
for his friends, while he was 
in France. These were great 
favorites with our grand- 
fathers, and every school 
reader once contained "The 
Story of the Whistle," and 
several others. They are, however, much more artificial 
than the Autobiography, and perhaps for this reason they 
have been less generally remembered. 

Franklin was greatest as a thinker when he dealt with prac- 
tical, commonsense ideas, and with the prudential virtues of 

"Little strokes fell great oaks." 
"It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright." 
"Early to bed and early to rise, 
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." 



D Y. 



M! THOMAS GODFREY, Ju 

of Philadelphia. 



Some ACCOUNT of the /ivrHOX and his H'm 



PHILADELPHIA. 

Primed bjHi»iv Miller, in Second-Street. 
M DCC LXV. 

Title-page of Godfrey's Poems. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 41 

industry, thrift, and economy. As a writer he had the ability 
to make the presentation of such ideas charming, not by orna- 
mentation or play of fancy, but by clearness and directness of 
statement. 

Franklin mentions in his Autobiography a number of his 
literary associates in Philadelphia, several of them writers 
of some note in their day. One of the youngest of these, 
Thomas Godfrey, is known as the author of the Prince of 
Parthia, the first tragedy written in America (1759). God- 
frey had few advantages of education, and had little experi- 
ence with the world when he made this ambitious attempt. 
The play is faulty in construction and often bombastic, but 
it was a creditable, almost a remarkable performance for an 
unschooled boy of twenty-three. Unfortunately the author 
died before his genius had time to develop. Several other 
friends of Franklin were, like himself, interested in natural 
science, and helped to give Philadelphia a position of pre- 
eminence as a center of scientific investigation. 

General Summary of the Colonial Time 

Since the early American writers are important chiefly 
for their influence on their successors, it may be well to close 
this study of the colonial time with a brief survey of tenden- 
cies and results. 

The earliest settlers in the South brought with them the 
ideals of Elizabethan England and some knowledge of the 
masterpieces of Elizabethan literature; and throughout the 
colonial period educated Southerners read the latest works 
of English authors, and took these as the models for any 
writings of their own. Economic and social conditions com- 
bined, however, to make interest in education and in litera- 
ture slight, and to discourage writing. The influence of 



42 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Southern colonial writings on the important authors of a later 
period is hardly noticeable. 

In New England the first settlers, restricted as they were by 
their religious views, brought with them relatively little knowl- 
edge of the best that had been produced in English literature, 
and took as their literary models works of inferior merit, by 
members of their own party. Moreover, during the next 
century and a half New Englanders acquired relatively little 
familiarity with the writings of their English contemporaries, 
and conscientiously refrained from attempting many of the 
forms of literature that were being produced in England. 
The unfortunate literary ideals of the fathers were thus per- 
petuated, with little change, by the children. However, the 
Puritans were devoted to education and were fond of express- 
ing their ideas; so that in the century and a half of the 
colonial time New England produced a body of writings rela- 
tively large in proportion to the population, and remarkably 
clear, earnest, and well-considered. 

One other fact perhaps should be noted. Although the great 
majority of the writings in colonial New England were the 
work of the ministers and their associates, there lived along 
with these graduates of Cambridge and Harvard a large 
number of shrewd, hard-headed, scheming Yankees who were 
less notable for their devoutness than for their ability to drive 
a bargain or to overcome a practical difficulty. These men 
wrote little, or at least published little, during the colonial 
time, but they w r ere an important element in New England 
intellectual life, and their influence counted for much in later 
generations. 

As national events shaped themselves, much of later Ameri- 
can literature came in direct line of succession from the early 
New England writings. The student should be able to trace 
in the work of many nineteenth-century authors the charac- 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 43 

teristics inherited from the Massachusetts divines and from 
their more worldly parishioners. 

The Middle colonies differed greatly among themselves in 
conditions of settlement and in the characteristics of their 
inhabitants. In Philadelphia, the chief intellectual center, 
conditions were in many ways more favorable to literary 
work than in either the North or the South. Here were 
popular education, good printing facilities, freedom to read 
the English classics, and to write what one chose, and a 
general interest in practical matters and in science. On the 
other hand there was less idealism and moral enthusiasm than 
in New England. In making the comparison it must be re- 
membered, however, that the literary history of Philadelphia 
hardly begins before the second quarter of the eighteenth 
century, and that the brief Colonial period runs more closely 
into the period that follows than in the other colonies. The 
later literary influence of Philadelphia was second only to 
that of New England, and was on the whole an influence for 
good. 

READINGS AND TOPICS 

[Note. — The list of readings and topics here given and those 
which follow succeeding chapters of this book are intended only 
as hints and aids, and not as a course to be followed. They give 
an abundance of material and as great a variety as possible in order 
that the teacher, or the pupil with the approval of the teacher, may 
make a choice. Besides readings on important authors, and papers 
which any member of a class may easily prepare, they suggest a few 
out-of-the-way topics which may occasionally be used to give variety 
to the work, and may be of value to a specially prepared or specially 
interested student. These sometimes refer to works not generally 
accessible, but a satisfactory list of readings may be selected from 
a relatively few books. An attempt is made to indicate as far as pos- 
sible the relative value of assignments, but the pupil's chief safeguard 
against undesirable tasks must be the advice of the teacher. It 
is hardly necessary to say that often the most useful topics for local 



44 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

needs will not be found in the list, though they may sometimes be 
suggested by those here given.] 

General Suggestions. — Any good school history of the United 
States may be used to freshen the student's knowledge of colonial 
history. An excellent presentation may be found in Thwaites's 
The Colonies 1492-1750. The history of contemporary English 
literature should also be kept in mind, and may if necessary be re- 
viewed in any good manual. It is particularly important to note 
the relations between English and American authors. 

The best general discussion of American literary history, for this 
time is found in Tyler, A History of American Literature during 
the Colonial Time. For briefer treatments, see Cairns, .4 History 
of American Literature, Chap. I ; Trent, A History of American 
Literature, pp. 1-130; Wendell, A Literary History of America, 
pp. 13-103. For the South, see Moses, The Literature of the South. 

Selections from the writers named in the lists below will be found 
in Cairns, Selections from Early American Writers; Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vols. I and II (writers 
from 1607 to 1676 in Vol. I, those from 1676 to 1765 in Vol. II) ; 
Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry; and from some of the 
poets in Bronson, American Poems: Many brief illustrative selec- 
tions are also given in connection with the criticisms in Tyler's 
History of American Literature during the Colonial Time, already 
referred to. 

THE SOUTH 

Suggestions for Reading. — The student should read brief selec- 
tions from Captain John Smith and from William Byrd. [For 
Smith, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, 
Vol. I, pp. 3-17; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 1-18; Trent 
& Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 1-22. For Byrd, 
see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. II, 
pp. 302-309 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 259-272 ; Trent 
& Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. Ill, pp. 21-43.] If time 
permits he may also read from Strachey, The Burwell Papers, and 
The Sot-Weed Factor. The relation of each of these to contem- 
porary English writers should be noted. [For Strachey, see Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, A Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 
24-31 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 19-26. For the Bur- 
well Papers, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Litem- 



THE COLONIAL PEBIOD 45 

ture, Vol. I, pp. 450-4(32 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 181— 
189 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 156- 
169. For the Sot-Weed Factor, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library 
of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 272-274 ; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 252-258.] 

Suggestions for Papers and Oral Topics. — Interesting studies 
may be made of the impressions produced on the early settlers 
by the Indians. [For this topic it may be desirable to consult 
not only the writings of authors named in the text, but also of others, 
e.g., Alexander Whitaker, John Pory, and Colonel Norwood. For 
Whitaker, see Tyler, History of American Literature during the 
Colonial Time, Vol. I, pp. 45-48 ; Stedman & Hutchinson, Library 
of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 36-40. For Pory, see Tyler, 
History of American Literature during the Colonial Time, Vol. I, 
pp. 48-51 ; Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, 
Vol. I, pp. 41-43. For Colonel Norwood (about whom little is 
known), see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, 
Vol. I, pp. 50-90 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, 
pp. 23-33.] 

Those who have access to Smith's complete works may make a 
study, perhaps more amusing than valuable, of the probable truth 
of Smith's well-known account of his rescue by Pocohontas. [Com- 
pare the account of his visit to Powhatan in the True Relation 
with the story in his letter to Queen Anne written in 1816 ; see also 
C. D. Warner's Life of John Smith.] Students of "The Tempest" 
may first find for themselves parallelisms between Strachey's 
Wrack and Redemption and the play ; then compare Tyler, 
History of American Literature during the Colonial Time, Vol. I, 
pp. 41-45, and Furness, Variorum edition of "The Tempest," 
pp. 313-315. Other suggestions for papers : The character of 
Smith as seen in his writings ; The character of Byrd as seen in 
his writings ; Traces of humor in Southern colonial writings. For 
suggested comparisons between Southern and New England colonial 
writings see below. 

NEW ENGLAND 

Suggestions for Reading. — In his study of the first Colonial 
period the student should read selections from at least one of the 
historians (Bradford, Winthrop), from at least one of the ministers 
(Cotton, Hooker, Shepard), from The Bay Psalm Book, Anne 



46 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Bradstreet, and Michael Wigglesworth. [For Bradford, see Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 93- 
130 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 27-43 ; Trent & Wells, 
Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 34-69. For Winthrop, see 
Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, 
pp. 291-309; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 44-59; Trent 
& Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 90-1 19. For Cotton, 
see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, 
pp. 253-272 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 82-93 ; Trent 
& Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 156-181. For 
Hooker, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Litera- 
ture, Vol. I, pp. 189-202 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, 
Vol. I, pp. 214-229. For Shepard, see Stedman & Hutchinson, 
Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 216-231 ; Cairns, Early 
American Writers, pp. 125-133; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose 
and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 230-249. For Bay Psalm Book, see Stedman 
& Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 211-216; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 73-81 ; Bronson, American 
Poems, pp. 2-3; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, 
pp. 120-126. For Anne Bradstreet, see Stedman & Hutchinson, 
Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 311-315; Cairns, Early 
American Writers, pp. 146-164 ; Bronson, American Poems, pp. 
4-19; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 271- 
287. For Wigglesworth, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Vol. II, 
pp. 3-19 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 165-177 ; Bronson, 
American Poems, pp. 19-28; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and 
Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 47-60.] Those who have time should read 
from Thomas Morton, Ward, and Folger, and will probably find 
Morton and Ward more entertaining, though less significant, than 
the writers previously mentioned. [For Morton, see Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 147-156 ; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 60-72 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial 
Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 70-79. For Ward, see Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 276-285; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 112-124; Trent & Wells, 
Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. I, pp. 250-270. For Folger, see 
Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. I, 
pp. 479-485; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 178-180; Trent 
& Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 111-114.] 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 47 

In his study of the second Colonial period the student should if 
possible read selections from one of the tales of Indian captivity 
(Williams's, Mrs. Rowlandson's), from Sewall's Diary, and from 
writings of Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Ed- 
wards. [For John Williams, see Tyler, History of American 
Literature during the Colonial Time, Vol. II, pp. 139-140; Stedman 
& Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 241-248. 
For Mrs. Rowlandson, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of 
American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 52-62 ; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 190-198 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, 
Vol. II, pp. 193-204. For Sewall, see Stedman & Hutchinson, 
Library of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 188-200 ; Cairns, Early 
American Writers, pp. 238-251. For Increase Mather, see Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 75- 
106 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 199-216 ; Trent & Wells, 
Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 215-230. For Cotton 
Mather, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Litera- 
ture, Vol. II, pp. 114-166 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 217- 
237 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. II, pp. 231-285. 
For Edwards, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American 
Literature, Vol. II, pp. 373-411; Cairns, Early American Writers, 
pp. 277-294 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 143-189.] 

Papers and Topics. — A comparison may be made between the 
character of Bradford or Winthrop and that of Thomas -Morton 
as seen in their writings. A study of popular superstition and be- 
lief as seen in the writings of Bradford, Winthrop, and others, will 
be valuable if approached in the proper spirit, but there is danger 
of being too flippant or too patronizing. 

It would seem that every American of New England ancestry 
should read at least one complete sermon of the sort that his grand- 
fathers heard, and those who do so may be tempted to present a 
topic on the New England sermon. [For side lights, see Tyler, A 
History of American Literature during the Colonial Time, Vol. I, 
pp. 186-193 ; Earle, The Sabbath in Puritan New England; Child, 
The Colonial Parson of New England, etc. Sermons of the pre- 
Revolutionary time may be unearthed in many public and private 
libraries.] Other possible topics are : A study of the Simple Cobler, 
Study of the Day of Doom, Early New England epitaphs and elegies. 



48 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

[See Tyler, A History of American Literature during the Colonial 
Time, Vol. I, pp. 266-271, Vol. II, pp. 9-11, 38-43] ; A comparison 
between early historical writers in Virginia and Massachusetts, 
e.g., Smith and Bradford ; The New England Primer (if a reprint 
is available) compared with modern textbooks. 

For the second period many students will find Sewall's Diary the 
most interesting reading, and on selections from this may be based 
either an estimate of the author's character, or notes on New Eng- 
land life and customs. A study of witchcraft as seen in the writings 
of the Mathers (Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences, 
Wonders of the Invisible World) or of a New England Revival as 
seen in Edwards's Narrative of Surprising Conversions is interesting, 
but there is danger of thinking these matters more important than 
they are. Elements of interest in the narratives of Indian cap- 
tivities would be an excellent topic for those who have access to at 
least one narrative complete, but should hardly be attempted from 
brief selections alone. Another possible topic is : A comparison 
of Increase and Cotton Mather. 

THE MIDDLE COLONIES 

Suggestions for Reading. — The student should if possible read 
Franklin's Autobiography complete, and should surely read selec- 
tions from this work and from " Poor Richard." [See Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 3-49 ; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 314-334; Trent & Wells, 
Colonial Prose and Poetry, Vol. Ill, pp. 190-236.] Selections from 
Godfrey's Prince of Parthia may be read by those specially in- 
terested in the drama. [See Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of 
American Literature, Vol. II, pp. 492-500; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 295-304 ; Trent & Wells, Colonial Prose and Poetry, 
Vol. Ill, pp. 281-283.] Students of American History may be 
interested in some of Franklin's political writings, and those of 
scientific tastes may turn to his accounts of electrical experiments. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — Topics on this period will 
naturally deal with the great central figure, Franklin, and their 
character may depend on the student's interests as hinted in the 
preceding section. An attempt may be made to distinguish from 
the Autobiography the elements in Franklin's character that he 
derived from New England and those that he derived from his 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 49 

experiences in the larger world. More specific topics, such as 
Franklin's ideas of duty, Franklin's methods of dealing with men, 
Franklin's varied activities, A character sketch of " Poor Richard," 
What Franklin's Proverbs really teach, Why we are interested in 
the Autobiography, will readily suggest themselves. Those who 
are fresh from the study of Shakespeare's plays may trace the 
imitation of the Elizabethan manner in Godfrey's Prince of Parthia. 



CHAPTER II 

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

1765-1800 

General Conditions. — The second period in the literary 
history of America extends from the beginning of the agitation 
which resulted in the independence of the colonies until a time 
when the national government was firmly established. In 
order to understand the development of American literature 
during these troubled years it is necessary to remember the 
many and rapid changes in the interests and the thoughts of 
the people. 

From the passage of the stamp act (1765) until after the 
inauguration of Washington (1789) all thinking Americans 
were intensely interested in politics — so intensely interested 
that most of what they read and wrote dealt, directly or in- 
directly, with political questions. So closely did writing 
follow public affairs that each change of political situation 
might almost be said to mark a new literary period. 

From the stamp act to the Declaration of Independence 
was a time of agitation over the rights of the colonies and the 
duty of men toward government. The writings most typical 
of this period were the argumentative orations, pamphlets, 
newspaper articles, and state papers which discussed the 
many questions that were constantly arising. 

During the war men felt that the time for argument had 
gone by. Though there were discussions on various matters, 

60 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 51 

the most representative writings were those which expressed 
the loyalty and enthusiasm of the author, and strove to en- 
courage others. 

From the treaty of peace to the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion men thought of what should be done with their newly 
won independence, and what the form of the new govern- 
ment should be. Argumentative writings were again promi- 
nent, and there were also many patriotic rejoicings and some 
ambitious attempts at an American literature. 

When the Constitution was adopted, and Washington, the 
national hero, was made president, there followed a time of 
great national self-satisfaction and glorification, broken of 
course by some sectional and partisan bickerings. 

Each of these four brief periods was in a way distinct from 
the others. They were, however, bound together by the fact 
that the Revolution was chiefly a young men's movement 
so that many of the men who wrote and spoke in 1765 con- 
tinued active throughout the rest of the century, and even 
longer. 

Although the colonies united for political action, and later 
merged into one nation, sectional differences continued strong, 
and the most convenient grouping of authors is still the 
geographical one. In following this chapter the student 
should particularly notice to which of the subperiods each 
work belongs. 

New England 

Boston Orators and Pamphleteers. — New England con- 
tinued, as in the colonial time, to be prolific in published 
writings, but interest was now changed from theology and 
religion to theories of government, and colonial rights. Bos- 
ton was conspicuous in determined opposition to the English 
measures for taxation, and the names of Lexington, Concord, 



52 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



BlCKERSTAFF'i 

BOSTON ALMANACK. 

if .' . Yt-t e'oir lOKO IIM B-int il» '•»-.! Year ifx' Lt» Y<i 



and Bunker Hill remind us that it was in the vicinity of 
Boston that the first open hostilities appeared. The city, 
as will be seen later, lost something of the preeminence which 
it had held in general literature, but in political writings it 

took the lead. Many pa- 
triot writers and speakers, 
like James Oris, Samuel 
Adams, and John Adams, 
have been remembered as 
leaders in the cause of lib- 
erty, and their names are 
still generally known. Fame 
has been less kind to those 
who took the unpopular Tory 
side, but the average of the 
Tory writers was as high as 
that of the patriots, perhaps 
even higher in culture and 
literary training. It is not 
necessary here to discuss in 
detail the numerous speeches, 
pamphlets, and newspaper 
articles of these men, but 




their work is important be- 

Title-page of a patriotic almanac of . , 

1770 with portrait of James Otis. Cause it constituted a great 

element in the reading of the 
people for a number of years; because it had a dignity and 
a soundness of intellectual appeal that political controversy 
often lacks; and because it set fashions of public writing 
and speaking that were to be followed in America for two 
or three generations. This remark applies with equal force, 
it may be noted, to the best political literature produced in 
other sections of the country. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 53 

Miscellaneous New England Writings. — Political feeling 
in Boston was so intense, and the city suffered so severely 
during the early years of the Revolution, that there was little 
energy for the writing of anything that had not a political 
bearing. Possibly it was because men were so much occu- 
pied with public affairs that several of the best remembered 
Boston writers of the time were women. 

Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren, sister of James Otis, was as 
ardent a patriot as her brother, and just before the Revolu- 
tion wrote the " Adulator " and the " Group," two satirical 
dramatic poems in which the characters represent well- 
known patriots and Tories. Later she wrote two tragedies 
which are intended to teach general political lessons, and a 
history of the Revolution, full of her own reminiscences and 
opinions. Her letters also give interesting glimpses of the 
period, and show the formal, artificial maimer of correspond- 
ence then in vogue. 1 

The works of Mrs. Susanna Haswell Rowson are of 
little real importance, but may serve as examples of a great 
quantity of moral and sentimental writing which the taste 
of the time seemed to demand. Mrs. Rowson was born and 
spent her early years in Boston, but was in England from the 
outbreak of the Revolution until 1793. She then returned 
to America, went on the stage, and later conducted a fashion- 
able school for Boston girls. Her tearfully sentimental ro- 
mance, Charlotte Temple, which is still to be read in various 

1 Thus, she wrote to her son, who was attending college : "Happy 
beyond expression will you be, my son, if amidst the laudable pros- 
perity of youth and its innocent amusements : you ever keep that 
important period in view which must wind up this fleeting existence, 
and land us on that boundless shore where the profligate can no 
longer soothe himself in the silken dream of pleasure, or the infidel 
entertain any further doubts of the immortality of his deathless 
soul." 



54 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



paper-covered editions, was written in England. After her 
return to America she published essays, poems, and other 
tales, all with an old-fashioned moral and sentimental tone. 
The acceptance in New England of even this moralizing 
fiction shows an advance in liberality over the colonial time. 
A still greater advance is shown by the fact that Mrs. Warren 
adopted the dramatic form for her satires, and that twenty 

years later Boston mothers 
would intrust their 
daughters to a preceptress 
who had been on the stage. 
Still, stage plays were not 
legally allowed in Boston 
before 1793; x and when 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Jr., 2 a Boston poet of some 
ability but of dissipated 
habits, came to a bad end, 
many persons attributed 
his moral failure to the 
fact that he married an 
actress and wrote a the- 
atrical prologue or two. 
Susanna Rowson. Paine's best poems were a 




1 In most American cities where the theater was forbidden by law 
the authorities connived at the production of plays before the pro- 
hibition was formally removed. Some of the subterfuges resorted 
to were amusing. For example, "Othello" has been performed 
under the heading, as advertised on the playbills, "Moral lectures 
on the subject of jealousy." 

There were attempts at play-writing in various New England 
colonies before 1800. Some of these are very interesting to the 
student of the theater in America, but have hardly enough literary 
merit to be considered here. 

2 R. T. Paine, Jr., was originally named Thomas, and was so 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 55 

bombastic patriotic song, " Adams and Liberty," and a 
moralizing poem in the heroic couplet, " The Ruling 
Passion." 

The Hartford Wits. — While Boston was making a rather 
unimportant showing except in purely political writings, 
more ambitious work was being undertaken a little to the 
southward. The change of literary leadership from Massa- 
chusetts to Connecticut was due partly to the hardships 
which Boston suffered as a result of the war, and partly to 
religious and political conditions too complicated to be traced 
here. Connecticut was prosperous commercially, and both 
the community and Yale College were conservative in politics 
and religion. The Connecticut writers were accordingly 
mostly Federalists * and orthodox Congregationalists. A 
group of these writers, known by their contemporaries as 
the " Hartford Wits," 2 included John Trumbull, Timothy 
Dwight, Joel Barlow, and several men of lesser importance. 

It was said in the preceding chapter that about the close 
of the Colonial period young men here and there came to 
recognize the charm of the eighteenth-century English prose 
and verse, and to attempt imitations. The older of the 
Hartford Wits were such young men ; and if political troubles 
had not arisen, they might have continued to write light and 
witty copies of Addison and Pope. . In 1769-1770 John Trum- 
bull, then a graduate student at Yale, published in a news- 
known when his earlier poems were published. When the irreverence 
of the Age of Reason (see p. 64) made the more famous Thomas 
Paine unpopular, the poet petitioned the authorities to take the 
name of his father, the well-known patriot. Thereafter it was a 
favorite joke of his to say that he now had a "Christian" name. 

1 The Federalists were the conservative party, and favored a 
strong central government, and laws that would preserve and 
strengthen property rights. 

2 "Wits" was used in the old sense of men who think and express 
their thoughts, and had nothing to do with the idea of humor. 



56 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



paper two series of essays imitative of the Spectator. A little 
later, while tutor at Yale, he wrote The Progress of Dulness, 
a poem in Hudibrastic measure satirizing higher education 




An early illustration for McFingnl ; preparations for the 
tarring and feathering. 

as it was managed in New England. He then read law in the 
office of John Adams at Boston, and here naturally trans- 
ferred his interest from social foibles and systems of education 
to political questions. After two or three lesser poems on 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 57 

political subjects, he published in January, 1776, the first part 
of McFingal, his most famous work. The second part of the 
poem was not added until 1782. McFingal is a satire in 
Hudibrastic verse, and tells of the adventures and misad- 
ventures of a Scotch loyalist. 1 

Trumbull's feelings were so intense that, though he adopted 
a verse form which is usually associated with a light and hu- 
morous manner, his work is sometimes heavy. But other 
Americans felt as intensely as he, and enjoyed his downright 
attacks on the Tory party. Everybody knew and quoted 
the first part of McFingal during the Revolution, and for a 
generation afterward the poem was looked on as a classic. 
A later time has remembered only the name and one or two 
well-worded couplets. 2 

Timothy Dwight was student and later tutor at Yale 
at the same time with Trumbull, and contributed some papers 
to his friend's series of Addisonian essays already mentioned. 
Later he was chaplain in the army, and during his service 
wrote a patriotic song beginning, 

Columbia, Columbia, to glory rise, 
which became very popular. In 1785 he published the 

1 The first part of the poem tells of an exciting town meeting 
at which the chief speakers were McFingal and a patriot, Honorius, 
who is sometimes said to be modeled after John Adams. The second 
part, which was written after people were in a less argumentative 
mood, tells in humorous fashion of the tarring and feathering of 
McFingal by a patriot mob, and of a secret meeting in his cellar 
at which he confesses his errors and predicts to his followers the 
success of the Americans. 

2 Probably the two best known are : 

"But optics sharp it needs I ween, 

, To see what is not to be seen." 

and 

"No man e'er felt the halter draw, 

With good opinion of the law." 



58 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Conquest of Canaan, an epic poem in eleven books; and in 
1794, Greenfield Hill, a narrative and pastoral poem in seven 
parts. Later he became President of Yale and wrote some 
sedate works in prose, and a little verse satire. Dwight was 
an ardent patriot, but unlike Trumbull he did not write much 
on political events themselves. His most significant works 
are the Conquest of Canaan and Greenfield Hill. The former, 
we are told, was a juvenile performance, written between 
1771 and 1774; but some passages which refer to the Revolu- 
tion were certainly added later, and very likely the whole 
was revised before it was first published in 1785. It doubtless 
owed its origin in 1771 to the young poet's reading of Pope, 
but its publication, and the composition of Greenfield Hill, 
may be taken as expressions of the feeling that the new nation 
must at once produce a national literature. In the preface 
to the Conquest of Canaan, Dwight himself calls attention 
to the fact that his poem is the first epic to be pub- 
lished in the country. It is significant that though the 
author was anxious for an American literature, there is 
nothing distinctly national, or even individual, about his 
work. His epic is on an old-world subject, 1 and is written 
in the most conventional of meters, the heroic couplet. In 
Greenfield Hill his plan, at first, was to imitate in each of the 
seven parts a different English poet. The attempt to achieve 
a national literature by mere copying seems amusing to us 
now, but it was made by more than one American. Dr. 
Dwight was a man of great ability and earnestness, and 
occasionally, as in his familiar hymn beginning, " I love thy 
kingdom, Lord," he expressed himself in genuine poetry. 
Ordinarily, however, his verse was rather monotonous and 
uninspired. 

1 It is based on the account in the Book of Joshua, but the author 
took considerable liberties with the scripture narrative. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 59 

Joel Barlow, who was a little younger than Trumbull 
and Dwight, had a varied career. After his graduation from 
Yale in 1778, he studied divinity for a few weeks, was licensed 
to preach, and secured an army chaplainship. After the war 
he was lawyer and country editor, and revised the transla- 
tion of the Psalms for the Congregationalists of Connecticut. 
He went to England as agent for a land company, then to 
France, where he was active in politics. Still later lie was 
United States minister to France. To some of his contem- 
poraries his beliefs and his principles seemed as changeable 
as his occupations, and unlike the other Hartford Wits he 
was suspected of being dangerously liberal in both politics 
and religion. While chaplain in the army, Barlow wrote the 
Vision of Columbus, which he later expanded into the Co- 
lumbiad. While he was abroad, he wrote some prose and verse 
on political subjects, and a mock-heroic poem, Hasty Pud- 
ding. The latter was inspired by his being served, in an out- 
of-the-way French inn, with corn meal " mush," a dish that 
had been familiar in his New England boyhood. It is his 
cleverest, perhaps his best, work. 1 More ambitious and 
more typical of the author, as most people saw him, were the 
Vision of Columbus and the Columbiad. The latter, though 
not published until 1807, should be considered here, since it 
is really an expansion of the earlier production. In both 
poems Hesper, the genius of the Western world, takes Colum- 
bus from prison, where he was confined in his old age, and 
shows him in vision the continent that he has discovered, and 
its future history. Barlow had more talent than either Trum- 
bull or Dwight, and he sometimes showed real poetic power. 

1 It was the fashion of the authors of epics and other ambitious 
works to dedicate them to Washington. Barlow had sufficient 
sense of humor to dedicate this mock-heroic treatment of a culinary 
subject to Mrs. Washington. 



60 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Unfortunately, he was wholly without restraint or sense of 
proportion, and the reader is so often struck by bombastic 
and ludicrously over-rhetorical expressions that he is likely 
to overlook the bits that are really good. Strangely enough, 
the Columbiad is far more bombastic than the juvenile poem. 

Trumbull, D wight, and Barlow collaborated with a number 
of lesser Hartford Wits in the production of several polit- 
ical satires, all of which supported the conservative or Fed- 
eralist party. Probably the best of these satires was the 
Anarchiad, which was published in 1786-1787. This purports 
to be a translation of passages from a prehistoric epic found 
in the Indian mounds of Ohio, and gives ironical praise to 
the reign of Anarchy which, the Federalists believed, would 
follow the victory of the liberal or Democratic party. The 
Echo, a somewhat later satire, was, as the name implies, a 
series of burlesque paraphrases of passages from speeches, 
public documents, etc., and was often bitterly personal. 
Two facts should be noted with regard to these writings: 
first, they lacked the spontaneous give and take of popular 
satire, but were the elaborately planned work of men with 
formal literary habits; second, they often descended, espe- 
cially toward the close of the century, to trivial and ill-tem- 
pered personalities. Though one might expect far more 
bitterness of feeling in 1774 than twenty years later, McFingal 
is much cleaner and better natured than the Echo. A similar 
degeneration will be noticed in the political satire of the 
Middle states. 

The Hartford Wits were able and earnest men, who did 
much, in ways that this history has not time to trace, for 
American literature and the development of literary taste in 
America. Unfortunately, they were imitative in their writ- 
ings, and still more unfortunately they chose as models the 
English writers of the eighteenth century whose own works 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 61 

were soon to go out of fashion. It was natural that these 
rather weak disciples should experience the fate of their mas- 
ters, and in even a greater degree. The temptation now is 
to ignore them, or to ridicule them. There is much to ridicule, 
but it should be remembered that in their own day English 
as well as American critics thought that there was much to 
praise. Whatever their defects, the Conquest of Canaan 
and the Columbiad exerted a considerable influence on the 
taste of the next generation. When Bryant, Longfellow, 
and Whittier were boys, Barlow, Trumbull, and Dwight 
were " the greater American poets." 

The Middle Region 

Literary Centers. — The chief centers of literary activity 
in the middle region were New York City and Philadelphia. 
Several writers belonged to New Jersey, but most of these 
had their literary associations with one or the other of the 
cities just outside the borders of that state. 

New York. — The greatest patriot writer of New York 
was Alexander Hamilton, a West Indian by birth, who in 
1774 was a student at King's College, now Columbia Uni- 
versity. In this year the Reverend Samuel Seabury 1 
wrote three able pamphlets on the loyalist side, which he 
signed " A Westchester Farmer." Hamilton, then a boy 
only seventeen years of age, wrote two pamphlets which are 
often considered the best of the many replies to the " West- 
chester Farmer." From this time until his unfortunate 
death in 1804 Hamilton was active in the service of his 
adopted country, and his writings on political and economic 
subjects fill many volumes. To the general reader the most 

1 Afterward Bishop Seabury of the American Episcopal Church. 



62 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



important of these is the Federalist. This was a series of 
papers published in New York in 1787-1788 in support of the 
proposed Constitution. The great majority of the numbers 
were written by Hamilton, but a few were by John Jay and 
James Madison. This remarkable series of newspaper 
articles was written with such simplicity and fairness that it 
had the greatest influence on popular opinion. At the same 

time it presents an analysis 
of the Constitution so logical 
and profound that it has be- 
come a recognized authority 
on the nature of our govern- 
ment. Perhaps no other po- 
litical writing of recent times 
has combined so well the 
qualities of a campaign doc- 
ument and a truly states- 
manlike utterance of prin- 
ciples. 

Though New York was to 
be the chief literary center 
of the country during the 
next period, it produced lit- 
tle of importance in general 
literature before 1800. The 
city was fairly liberal in regard to theatrical representations, 
and attracted men interested in the drama. William Dunlap, 
a versatile author, artist, and business man, managed a New 
York theater, wrote several plays of his own, and adapted 
others from foreign playwrights. His comedy " The 
Father," and his historical tragedy " Andre " are best worth 
remembering. 
Pennsylvania. — The writings of Franklin, the greatest 




Alexander Hamilton. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 



63 



f 



figure in Philadelphia during the later eighteenth century, 
have been discussed in the preceding chapter. Franklin 
was abroad on public 
missions much of the 
time after 1765, and 
hence contributed 
less than might have 
been expected to the 
controversial writ- 
ings of the Revolu- 
tion. To the student 
of literature the next 
most important po- 
litical writer is 
Thomas Paine. 
Paine was born in 
England and came 
to Philadelphia in 
1774, with letters of 
introduction from 
Franklin. He at 
once took an inter- 
est in American 
affairs, and early in 
1776 published Com- 
mon Sense, some- 
times said to be the first pamphlet which openly advocated 
the independence of the colonies. During the war he wrote 
at irregular intervals the Crisis, a series of papers intended 
to explain and defend the acts of the colonial authorities, and 
to encourage disheartened patriots. 1 Later he went to Eng- 

1 The first number opens in resounding fashion, and the first 
Words, at least, have become proverbial : "These are the times that 



,' Jhthe PkEs§, 

and fjfcedify wiH be piiblifhed; 

FEDERALIST, 

A Collection of Eflays written ip fa 

Voir of the New Conftitutioh. 

By a Citizen of New-York. 

Corfe&ed by the Author, with ' Additions 
• ■' and Alteration*. 

Thtt_ work will bt printed on afim Paper 
and good Type, in one handfame Volume duo- 
decimo, i and delivered to fubferib'ers at the 
moderate price of one dollar, A few copies 
will be printed on fuperfme royal writing pa- 
pert price Unfbilltngs. 

No hwiey required till dcUvtry. 

.To render this work more complete, will be 
added, without any additional expenee, 

PHILO-PUBLIUS, 

/tfi) THE 
Articles of the Convention, 

At agreed upon at Philadelphia, Septem- 
ber ijtb, iyZj. , 



An advertisement of the Federalist. 



64 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

land, and to France, where he wrote, among other things, The 
Rights of Man, a political treatise, and the Age of Reason, an 
attack on some accepted religious beliefs. The Age of Reason 
and his association with French free-thinkers made Paine very 

THE 



AMERICAN CRISIS, 

Number I. 
By the Author of COMMON SENSE* 



T 



HESE are the times thnt %tj mcn*s foots : The 
fumtnei" foldisr and the CuuAuoe patriot will; in this 
crifij dirink. from tUr fervice o» hi* cooiit'V : **ut he 
that it amis it ncm ft d< fe rves (he love and thanks of 

The beginning of the Crisis as first published. 



unpopular, and led many persons to forget that at the close 
of the war he was one of the most honored citizens of America. 
The two works with which we are most concerned are Com- 
mon Sense and the Crisis. These are assuredly among 

try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot 
will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he 
that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 65 

the most important political writings of the Revolutionary 
time. Paine was not a very deep or a very logical thinker, 
and his literary style, which he acquired almost wholly after 
he came to Philadelphia, shows many technical rhetorical 
faults; but he took the view of the common man, he was 
enthusiastic, and he knew how to write plainly, effectively, 
and often with dignity. 

Among other Philadelphia controversialists was John 
Dickinson, sometimes known as the " Penman of the 
Revolution." He wrote many pamphlets and newspaper 
articles, and historians testify to his great influence, but the 
present-day reader may find his prose dull and disappointing. 

A lighter and more versatile writer was Francis Hop- 
kinson, who spent most of his life in Philadelphia, though 
he resided for a time in New Jersey, and signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence as a representative of that colony. 
Ilopkinson was an able lawyer and a judge, but he found 
time for many things besides his profession. He was inter- 
ested, as a clever amateur, in the fine arts, and he wrote many 
essays, and light verses, some of which he set to music. The 
most famous though not the best of his poems was his satiric 
ballad, " The Battle of the Kegs," written during the British 
occupation of Philadelphia. His many prose essays include 
two political allegories, " A Pretty Story " and " The New 
Roof." l Hopkinson was by no means the greatest of the 
Philadelphia writers, but he is one of the most interesting, 

1 "The Battle of the Kegs" ridicules the alarm felt by the British 
in Philadelphia when the patriots floated bombs, made of kegs 
filled with gunpowder, down among the shipping in the Delaware. 
"A Pretty Story " (1774) tells of an old farmer (John Bull), his farm 
(England), his sons (the colonists), and the new farm (America). 
In "The New Roof" the question is whether to repair the old roof 
(the Articles of Confederation), or to make an entirely new roof 
(the Constitution). 



66 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and he should be remembered as evidence that America was 
now producing gentlemen who showed both eminence in a 
profession and wide general culture. 




Independence Hall. 



^Between the close of the Revolution and 1800 a consider- 
able amount of political satire was written in Philadelphia, 
some of it by Europeans who had come to America. Wil- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 67 

liam Cobbett, an English editor and pamphleteer who under 
the pen name of " Peter Porcupine " was notorious in the 
political controversies of two hemispheres, lived in Phila- 
delphia from 1792 to 1800, and wrote in support of the Feder- 
alist party. One of his most vigorous opponents was 
Mathew Carey, a political exile from Ireland, who came to 
Philadelphia in 1784 and was a conspicuous figure there for 
more than fifty years. Both Cobbett and Carey were able 
men, and advanced some real arguments in support of their 
positions, but a great part of their controversial writings 
consisted of personal attacks. 1 The degeneration of political 
satire, which has already been noticed in the later work of the 
Hartford Wits, was even more marked in the Middle states, 
and gentlemen of real refinement were guilty of language 
that would now be heard only from blackguards. 

Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a Pennsylvanian who lived 
for some time at Pittsburg, in what was then the Far West, 
was a more humorous and a less bitter satirist. His Modem 
Chivalry, the first part of which was published at Pittsburg, 
in 1796, tells in the rollicking style of Smollett and Fielding 
the imaginary adventures of a Captain Farrago and his 
Irish servant, and touches, more by hints than by direct 
preaching, on some of the defects of a democratic society. 
This work, the first written west of the Alleghany Mountains 
to be mentioned in this history, shows the tendency toward 
burlesque and boisterous exaggeration which has always 
been characteristic of the American frontier. 

1 Carey calls Cobbett "a blasted, posted, loathsome coward . . . 
a disgrace to the name of soldier," and "the most tremendous 
scourge that hell ever vomited forth to curse a people, by sowing 
discord among them." Cobbett was at least equally violent in his 
abuse. That this was, partly at least, a matter of rhetoric is in- 
dicated by the fact that a few years later the men were exchanging 
the most friendly letters. 



68 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



At the very close of the century Charles Brockden 
Brown, the first American novelist worthy of the name, 
produced a series of remarkable tales. Brown was born in 
Philadelphia and always lived there except for some extended 
visits to New York. He became somewhat liberal in his 
political and religious views through a study of William God- 
win, the English essayist and novelist, and it was Godwin's 

novels that he took as models 
for his own prose fiction. His 
six tales, Wieland, Ormond, 
Arthur Mervyn, Edgar 
Huntley, Clara Howard, and 
Jane Talbot, were written in 
the years 1798-1801, inclu- 
sive. These contain many 
elements of mystery and hor- 
ror, and deal with unusual 
physical and psychological 
phenomena. 1 Brown was 
thus the first of the Ameri- 
can story-writers who, like 
Hawthorne and Poe, dealt 
with the mysterious and the 
weird. Though he had lit- 
tle or no influence on these 
later masters, he is worthy to be remembered for himself. 
That he was not still more successful is due in part to the 
rapidity with which he wrote and in part to an unfortunate 




Charles Brockden Brown. 



1 In Wieland one man meets death by some unexplained process 
of spontaneous combustion, and another is led to commit murder 
by hearing mysterious voices. Edgar Huntley is a story of a sleep- 
walker. Both Ormond and Arthur Mervyn present graphically the 
horrors of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 



69 



choice of subjects and of literary masters. Many of his de- 
scriptions are most effective. 

New Jersey Writers. — Philip Freneau, the most im- 
portant poet of the Revolutionary time, had some associa- 




> i 



Philip Freneau. 



tions with both New York and Philadelphia, but properly 
belongs to New Jersey. He was graduated from Princeton 



70 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

in 1771, and during much of his long life, which extended 
until 1832, was alternately sailor and editor. His prose 
writings and many picturesque incidents in his biography 
need not detain us here. As a poet he was remarkable for 
the possession of two different, indeed almost opposite, tal- 
ents — one for writing the most bitter invective, the other 
for the expression of delicate imagination and fine apprecia- 
tion of nature. The first of these characteristics is shown in 
his political satires. 1 He began to write these in 1775, and 
resumed them again in 1778, after a three years' absence in 
the West Indies. For some time these were the best known 
work of Freneau, but of recent years attention has turned to 
his other writings, and his worth as a poet has come to be 
better recognized. Some of his earlier poems, particularly 
" The House of Night," written while he was in the West 
Indies, show a vivid imagination, and, though uneven, great 
power of word painting. Shorter poems on plants, animals, 

1 Freneau at his worst may be seen in lines like these on Cobbett : 

" Philadelphians, we're sorry you suffer by fevers, 
Or suffer such scullions to be your deceivers ; 

Will Pitt's noisy whelp 

With his red foxy scalp 
Whom the kennels of London spew'd out in a fright, 

Has sculk'd over here 

To snuffle and sneer, 
Like a puppy to snap or a bull-dog to bite." 

It is hard to believe this the work of the same man who wrote 
genuinely tender lines "To a Honey-Bee," "To a Caty-Did," "On 
the Sleep of Plants," and who could say in "The Wild Honey- 
suckle " : 

"By Nature's self in white arrayed, 
She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, 
And planted here the guardian shade, 
And sent soft waters murmuring by ; 
Thus quietly thy summer goes, 
Thy days declining to repose." 



THE REVOL UTIONARY PERIOD 71 

the beliefs of the Indians, etc., indicate careful observation 
and sympathy with nature, and a light touch not to be sus- 
pected of a man whose satires are sometimes almost ludi- 
crous for their bitterness. In this more imaginative work 
Freneau showed himself responsive to some of the influences 
that a little later manifested themselves in the Romantic 
movement in English poetry. He had more poetic insight 
than any other American whom we have thus far met, and 
was the most important American poet before Bryant. 

John Woolman, a Quaker who traveled and exhorted 
where the Inner Light led him, in both England and America, 
was also a native of New Jersey. Woolman's Journal is a 
delightful revelation of the thoughts and experiences of a 
pure, if impractical, idealist. It is the sort of book that ap- 
peals to readers strongly, or not at all. Many distinguished 
critics whose temperaments have fitted them to enjoy it 
have ranked it among the greater works of American litera- 
ture. 1 The general public, however, has been disposed to 
pass it by with little notice. 

The Song Writers. — This is a convenient place to mention 
the songs and ballads produced during the Revolution. 
Since many of these are anonymous, they cannot be assigned 
to any section of the country, but a considerable number of 
those whose authors are known came from the Middle region. 
As is usual at a time of great popular excitement, there were 
many of these lyric expressions of feeling, some spontaneous, 
some deliberately studied. The ballads proper commemo- 
rated events of political or military significance, and were 



1 Charles Lamb said, "Get the writings of John Woolman, the 
Quaker, by heart. " Whittier was a great admirer of Woolman ; and 
in a list of "best books" compiled by President Eliot of Harvard, 
the Journal was included, though most works of later Americans 
were conspicuously absent. 



72 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

either satirical or serious. An example of the former is 
Hopkinson's " Battle of the Kegs " already mentioned. 
The best of the latter is probably the anonymous " Hale in 
the Bush," inspired by the death of Nathan Hale. 1 ' Yankee 
Doodle "is in ballad form, though not suggested by a partic- 
ular event. This had the peculiar fate of being composed 
as a burlesque on the patriots, and of being adopted by them. 
The songs were of all sorts, but the greater number of them 
were written to fit popular tunes then in vogue. 2 Many 
sets of words favoring both patriots and Tories were adapted 
to the English tune " Hearts of Oak," then very popular. 
Among patriotic lyrics of the studied sort were the " Liberty 
Song," by John Dickinson, beginning: 

Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all, 
And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty's call, 

and " Columbia," by Timothy Dwight, already referred to. 
The loyalist songs and ballads have been less carefully pre- 
served, since, after the beginning of the war, the loyalists had 
fewer facilities for printing, and since the authorship of loyal- 
ist songs was more likely to be kept secret. As might be 
expected from the fact that many of the loyalists were old- 
fashioned, conservative gentlemen, these are, on the average, 
more finished and less rollicking than the patriot effusions. 

1 The first stanza runs : 

"The breezes went steadily thro' the tall pines, 
A saying ' oh ! hu-ush ! ' a saying ' oh ! hu-ush ! ' 
As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, 
For Hale in the bush, for Hale in the bush." 

2 Many students will recognize the same tendency in the custom, 
common in schools which develop great interest in athletics, of 
arousing enthusiasm by local songs — words by some member of the 
school, sung to a familiar old tune, or to some temporary favorite 
of the vaudeville stage. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 



73 



The Revolution produced no great national lyric. Indeed, 
the only song of the time now generally known is the ironical 
" Yankee Doodle." 

The South 

General Conditions. — In the conditions that affected 
literature the South had not changed much since the days of 
William Byrd. Education and familiarity with literature 
were more general than they had been in the earlier colonial 
time, but with the planta- 
tion system of life there 
were few centers of cul- 
ture, and good usage still 
discouraged a gentleman 
from making literature 
more than a casual di- 
version. In quality of 
political writings, how- 
ever, the South, and es- 
pecially Virginia, the fu- 
ture " Mother of Presidents," 
other sections of the country, 
writings was less than in New England was due in part to 
the lack of ready facilities for publication. 
' Political Writers and Speakers. — The most talented of 
the Virginia statesmen was Thomas Jefferson. Some of 
Jefferson's early political writings brought him such a repu- 
tation that he was named by the Continental Congress as 
chairman of the committee to prepare the Declaration of 
Independence, and is chiefly responsible for the final form of 
that document. Later he wrote, besides many state papers, 
his Notes on Virginia. This work shows the extent of his 
information and the breadth of his interests, which included 



,. 


- 








*\m 








W''~ ■ 


Ma 


^m 


Ink? 9 ' II il 




BBS*" 


4 


^kssm^i 







Jefferson's home at Monticello. 

was in no degree inferior to 
That the number of such 



74 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



natural science, methods of farming, and other practical 
matters, and what at a later date would be called political 
economy. His many writings produced between 1800 and 
his death in 1826 fall outside the limits of the present chapter. 
While invaluable to the student of history, they differ little 
in literary quality from his earlier works. 

The Declaration of Independence, which as it stands is vir- 
tually Jefferson's work, exemplifies two styles of writing, 

both of which were long 
common in American po- 
litical discussions, and 
each of which shows 
something of the author's 
habits of thought. The 
more formal and high- 
sounding, though some- 
what vague parts, such 
as the famous opening 
paragraph, show Jeffer- 
son as a speculative 
thinker. The long and 
tellingly phrased list of 
charges against the King 
shows his interest in de- 
tails, and his ability to present them with power. The 
length of this catalogue of grievances now makes it some- 
what wearisome, but in its day both this and the more 
rhetorical parts were equally effective. In recent years 
popular taste prefers a simpler and more direct form of 
expression, but the people, both at home and abroad, 
to whom the Declaration was addressed, deemed it one 
of the most remarkable documents of the world. All 
patriotic considerations aside, it is worthy of the closest 




Thomas Jefferson. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 



75 



study, both for itself and for its influence on later Ameri- 
can prose. 

The greatest of the Southern Revolutionary orators was 
Patrick Henry. Though Henry had a long and influential 




Adams 



Sherman 



Jefferson 
The committee on the Declaration of Independence. 

career, his popular fame rests mainly on two orations, neither 
of which is fully and authentically preserved. Of the first 
of these, delivered before the Virginia House of Burgesses 
at the very beginning of the struggle, in 1765, we have little 
more than one broken sentence. 1 The second, delivered ten 

1 "Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First had his Cromwell; 
and George the Third — [Here the speaker was interrupted by cries 
of 'Treason'] may profit by their example." 



76 AMERICAN LITER A TUBE FOR SECONDA R Y SCHOOLS 



r ~- 



if.. jf/yVWED 5TAT£S | 



,'A , I.- .<• V Ji,,.A..< M .}«3 4^UtL il^tn o. dmr^ni v**j*t*A. 



,t tL* j%...fi JL*l^„tf" 






^ .<» rt M« t > ^ 



,.,,.„^,<> *~t,U*VM*tiA u^w <™>, <U«« (L-/<^ ^»« fw 



**r** . 



*'**• .f"- 



: hn4h .'/fe*Tv'/C* * 



*7/~.„~.*, *~~.v.j& tL.j~~- >tjui (l ^< u ^^. f ;4A4j,«i„, 









X-rCt,. -_ V kJ,..,,_ 



■ < , flu * **y *r f^nA^sL 

■ y'. ..,.{,.... 'r,...jtL ,^lm 









Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 79 

more formal English writers of the eighteenth century. 1 
Probably the best work of the Hartford Wits is found in 
Trumbull's early satires. Their later writings were solid, 
dignified, and painstaking, but unoriginal and uninspired. 

Though the Middle region could not show so large a body 
of writings as New England, or so closely related a group of 
authors as the Hartford Wits, it produced individual works 
of higher rank. It is necessary only to mention the political 
writings of Hamilton in New York and of Franklin and 
Paine in Philadelphia, the Journal of Woolman, the poems of 
Freneau, and the novels of Brown. Both New York and 
Philadelphia were more liberal than New England toward 
the theater and prose fiction. The one produced Dunlap, 
who is often known as the Father of the American drama; 
the other Brown, who was the first real American novelist. 

The South continued unimportant in all forms of writing 
except the political, but in this it took, as usual, high rank. 

It will thus be seen that the most important legacies of this 
period to the next were a thoroughly aroused interest in most 
forms of literature, and many excellent examples of political 
prose. For reasons which have been indicated, most of the 
verse, the hesitant beginnings of the drama, and even the 
novels of Brown were incentives to better and different work 
in the same line, not models for imitation. On. the other 
hand the better political writings of the founders of the 
nation established a manner that was long worthy to be 
followed. 

1 It should be noted that, owing to the earlier distrust of secular 
literature, New Englanders came to the imitation of Butler and 
Addison a generation or two later than did Ebenezer Cook and 
William Byrd. 



80 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



READINGS AND TOPICS 

General Suggestions. — • The writings of this period are so closely- 
connected with political events that it is essential that the student 
keep in mind the course of American history. The chapters on 
the Revolution in any good school history will probably serve to 
refresh his memory sufficiently, or he may consult a special work, 
such as Fiske, The American Revolution. The best extended dis- 
cussion of the period of the war, combining both history and literary 
criticism, is found in Tyler, TJie Literary History of the American 
Revolution. For briefer discussions of the literature of the period, 
see Cairns, History of American Literature, Chapter II ; Trent, 
History of American Literature, pp. 131-186 ; Wendell, Literary 
History of America, pp. 59-136. 

Selections from all the writers from whom readings are advised 
are to be found in Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American 
Literature, Vols. Ill & IV, and from the more important in Cairns, 
Selections from Early American Writers. Extracts from the more 
important writers of verse are given in Bronson, American Poems; 
and the discussions in Tyler's Literary History of the American 
Revolution are often illustrated by extended quotations. 

In his readings for this period, particularly for the prose, the 
student should attempt to gain a knowledge of general characteristics, 
rather than to study intensively the work of individual authors. 
For this reason the choice of selections is somewhat less definitely 
indicated than in the suggestions that follow other chapters. 

Suggestions for Reading. — It is hardly necessary that the general 
student read selections from the political writers of New England, 
provided he gives sufficient attention to work of this sort from 
other sections. Those whose study of American history has given 
them especial interest in the subject may, however, if the material 
is available, read selections from James Otis, Samuel Adams, John 
Adams, and others. [See Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of 
American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 113-116 (Otis), 91-98 (S. Adams), 
and 186-205 (J. Adams). Better than brief selections would be 
one complete pamphlet, or a discussion, e.g., that between Novan- 
gelus (John Adams) and Massachusettensis (Daniel Leonard).] 

The miscellaneous Boston writers are relatively unimportant. 
If one is desired as a representative of the group, perhaps Mercy 



THE REVOL UTIONA R Y PERIOD 81 

Warren best repays study. Those who wish may glance at the 
sentimental tales of Mrs. Rowson as literary curiosities. [For 
Mrs. Warren see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of Ameri- 
can Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 121-126 ; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 384-394. For Mrs. Rowson, see Stedman & Hutchin- 
son, Library of American Literature, Vol. IV, pp. 176-179.] 

The Hartford Wits require more attention. The student should 
read selections from Trumbull's McFingal, and if possible from the 
Progress of Dulness, from D wight's Conquest of Canaan and Green- 
field Hill, from Barlow's Vision of Columbus or Columbiad, and if 
possible from Hasty Pudding. [For Trumbull, see Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 403-413 ; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 395-408 ; Bronson, American 
Poems, pp. 87-105. For Dwight, see Stedman & Hutchinson, 
Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 463-483 ; Cairns, Early 
American Writers, pp. 409-420 ; Bronson, American Poems, pp. 
108-115; Stedman, American Anthology, pp. 9-10. For Barlow, 
see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. 
IV, pp. 46-57 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 421-430 ; 
Bronson, American Poems, pp. 116-133. Selections from the 
Anarchiad and the Echo may be found in Stedman & Hutchinson, 
Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 422-429.] 

Though the Federalist is somewhat difficult, the student should 
read enough to observe the author's method. [See Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. IV, pp. 119-127; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 364-369.] Students interested 
in the drama may read selections from Dunlap. [See Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. IV, pp. 208-221. 
Complete plays are difficult of access, but copies of " The Father" 
and "Andre" may be found in some libraries.] 

The student should read selections from Paine's Common Sense 
and The Crisis, as examples of the political literature. [See Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 
219-236; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 343-352.] Well 
worth while for those who have time are one of Hopkinson's political 
satires, and a few of his poems, and selections from Brackenridge's 
Modern Chivalry. The latter should be associated with the develop- 
ment of literature in the West. [For Hopkinson, see Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 236-251 ; 



82 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 372-383. For Brackenridge, 
see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. 
Ill, pp. 389-396 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 466-474.] 
Brown's novels should not be read at the expense of more important 
writings, but they are valuable as showing the beginnings of Ameri- 
can fiction. If a complete novel is read, the best choice for a 
beginner is probably Wieland. [Selections from Brown, unsatis- 
factory as selections from novels always are, may be found in Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. IV, pp. 
265-292 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 475-493.] 

Freneau, as the most important poet of the time, should receive 
considerable attention ; and every student should read enough from 
Woolman's Journal to determine whether or not it appeals to 
him. [For Freneau, see Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of Ameri- 
can Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 445-457 ; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 431-448; Bronson, American Poems, pp. 133-155; 
Stedman, American Anthology, pp. 3-8. For Woolman, see Sted- 
man & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 
78-85 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 305-313.] 

Most students are familiar with the Declaration of Independence, 
and with Patrick Henry's two best speeches. Those who are not 
should surely become so, and all should if possible read other selec- 
tions from Jefferson and Henry. [For Jefferson, see Stedman & 
Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 265-289 ; 
Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 353-361. For Henry, see 
Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 214-217 ; Cairns, Early American Writers, pp. 335-342.] 

The songs and ballads of the Revolution form an interesting 
indication of popular taste. Selections may be found in Moore, 
Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution; Sargent, Loyalist 
Poetry of the Revolution; Stedman & Hutchinson, Library of Ameri- 
can Literature, Vol. Ill, pp. 338-361 ; Cairns, Early American 
Writers, pp. 449-465 ; Bronson, American Poems, pp. 66-78. See 
also Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, Chapters 
XXVIII, XXXI. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — Topics based on the literary 
qualities of political prose are likely to be dull and difficult, but 
those who are interested may compare the style and methods of 
two of the more notable men, e.g., Jefferson and Hamilton, or 






THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 83 

better Otis and Henry (as orators) ; those who have been reading 
Burke may compare his oratory with that of one or more of his 
American contemporaries. Topics may readily be found which 
combine historical and literary interest, e.g. : The occasions of 
Patrick Henry's great speeches (see biographies of Henry by Wirt, 
Tyler) ; The History of the Declaration of Independence (see 
Hazelton, The Declaration of Independence, or for less detailed and 
exhaustive accounts, McClure's Magazine, 17 : 223 ; The Open 
Court, 5 : 2859) ; The history of the Federalist (see lives of Hamilton, 
and introductions to various editions of the Federalist) ; Thomas 
Paine's work for American independence ; The Songs and Ballads 
(or one group of them, loyalist, patriot, New England, etc.). The 
tunes to which these were adapted are still to be found in old col- 
lections, and they may be sung to or by the class. Political satire 
also affords good material for topics, e.g. : McFingal, either studied 
alone or compared with later political satire (The Bigloiv Papers) ; 
or, Hopkinson's political allegories. Those who can adopt a safe 
middle course between ridicule and undue praise may attempt 
papers on the nonpolitical work of the Hartford Wits, e.g. : 
The Progress of Dulness (compare it with McFingal, or consider 
how far the satire is applicable to-day ; See Tyler, Literary His- 
tory of the American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 215-221) ; Greenfield 
Hill (What English poets does it suggest ? See Tyler, Three Men 
of Letters, pp. 92-97) ; or on the Vision of Columbus and the Colum- 
biad (compare two corresponding passages). Among possible 
topics on Freneau is Freneau's attitude toward nature (may be 
compared with Bryant's or Wordsworth's). The character of 
Woolman as seen in his Journal is worthy of consideration ; or one 
may answer the question "Why did Charles Lamb say 'Get the 
writings of John Woolman by heart'" ; or may compare the Jour- 
nal with Franklin's Autobiography. Among general topics are: 
The change in poetic ideals since the colonial time ; The development 
of humor (traced in both political and nonpolitical writings) ; 
The development of oratory (trace especially the change from 
pulpit to political oratory), etc. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 

1800-1833 

The Trend of the Period. — In the first third of the nine- 
teenth century America produced a considerable body of 
writings that have lived and seem destined to live in general 
remembrance. Literary ideals changed gradually, on the 
whole for the better, and intellectual conditions became 
saner and more truly national. Before proceeding to a con- 
sideration of individual writers, it will be well to fix in mind 
a few facts regarding the period in general. 

In spite of the disturbance caused by the War of 1812, 
literary relations with England were close and important, 
though not wholly cordial. Among the greater writers of 
the mother country at this time were Wordsworth, Coleridge, 
Scott, Shelley, Keats, and Byron. These belonged to the 
so-called " Romantic school," which opposed the classic or 
Popean school that had furnished models for the Hartford 
Wits. Americans responded readily to the teachings of these 
men, but were not wholly carried away by their theories. 
In a literary controversy distance in space gives somewhat 
the same advantage as distance in time. It was probably 
owing to the position of American critics, rather than to any 
remarkable literary acumen, that many of them were selec- 
tive in their tastes, and that their critical judgments on Eng- 
lish writers were often very like those of posterity. While 

84 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 85 

England was split into two opposed factions, the classicists 
and the romanticists, Americans saw the beauties and the 
defects of both Pope and Wordsworth, and to a certain ex- 
tent followed both. 

Contemporary English literature had, on the whole, a good 
influence on American writers. So, probably, did English 
criticism of American authors, which was more extensive than 
before. 1 Nevertheless, the prejudices that survived from the 
Revolution, national jealousy, and the feeling that America 
should be independent intellectually as well as politically, 
united to make international literary relations somewhat 
strained. Friction was increased by the patronizing writings 
of British travelers in America, who returned home after 
brief visits and wrote unflattering accounts of the new coun- 
try. The charge was made at the time, and has often been 
repeated, that American writers were too subservient to Eng- 
lish judgments, and that they therefore lacked the courage 
to express themselves naturally. 2 On the other hand it is 
probable that the strictures of British reviewers helped tp 
diminish the feeling of patriotic self-satisfaction, and pre- 
vented many ludicrous exuberances. The whole subject 
of the literary interrelations between England and America 
is an important one, but is too complicated for discussion in a 
brief history. 

One manifestation of intellectual activity was the great 
number of magazines and literary papers founded during the 

1 In the preceding period the Conquest of Canaan, the Vision of 
Columbus, and a good number of other works had been republished in 
England, and had been reviewed, often with considerable praise, 
in the leading British periodicals ; but after 1800 there was more of 
this reprinting and reviewing, and Englishmen as a class paid more 
attention to trans-Atlantic writings. 

2 Many sensitive Americans were also troubled because American 
writers, especially Irving and Cooper, chose to live some time abroad. 



86 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

period. These sprang up by the dozens, almost by the hun- 
dreds, in all sections of the country. They ranged from the 
most serious and bulky reviews modeled after the British 
quarterlies to " Magazines of Useful and Entertaining 
Knowledge," which offered in popular form information 
culled from the encyclopedias. Most of these periodicals 
were short lived, some lasting only for an issue or two; but 
they were evidence of a widespread interest in literary affairs. 

Along with these more or less popular movements went 
development in scholarship. Both natural science and the 
modern languages and literatures came to receive more at- 
tention in American colleges. Several American scientists, 
notably Professor Silliman of Yale, were eminent both as 
investigators and as writers. Both Noah Webster's Dic- 
tionary and its one-time rival Worcester's appeared late in 
the period. Between 1815 and 1820 several brilliant young 
men from Harvard, among them Edward Everett, the 
orator, and George Bancroft, the historian, studied at 
German universities and brought back new ideas of scholar- 
ship and educational methods which eventually changed the 
character of American colleges. The death, during the early 
years of the century, of many of the founders of the nation 
called forth a great number of biographical and historical 
works, some of real scholarly value. 

During this period the chief literary center of the country 
was in New York. New England, which had been hard hit 
by the Revolution, suffered still more by the restrictive 
commercial legislation of the national government, particu- 
larly by the embargo of 1807. The result was that the most 
energetic young men of New England emigrated to the 
westward, where New England influence is seen in the forms 
of government and the educational institutions of several 
states. New York, on the other hand, prospered. Along 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 87 

with other commercial development came the establishment 
of publishing houses, newspapers, and magazines, all of which 
tended to attract writers to the growing city. 

New York 

The Knickerbocker Group. — The chief literary men of 
New York during the early nineteenth century are often 
known as the " Knickerbocker Writers." l Most of these 
were natives of other sections of the country, who had been 
drawn to the city by the excellence of publishing facilities 
or for other business reasons. While their personal relations 
were in most instances pleasant, they made no such closely 
unified group as did the Hartford Wits, or the Boston and 
Cambridge writers of the next generation. They had no 
general agreement in literary theories, and they exerted no 
great influence on one another. 

The three greatest of the Knickerbocker writers were 
Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and 
William Cullen Bryant. Grouped about these were 

FlTZGREENE HaLLECK, JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE, JAMES 

Kirke Paulding, and a number of lesser men, who, though 
! interesting, must be passed unnoticed in a brief survey. 

Washington Irving. — Washington Irving, the dean, as 
it were, of the Knickerbocker group, was the only one of the 
three greater men who was a thorough New Yorker. He 
was born in 1783 in New York City, where his father was an 
importer of cutlery. As a boy of rather delicate health and 
the youngest son of a well-to-do family, he was somewhat 
petted and left to have his own way. He ended his school- 
ing at the age of sixteen, traveled a little, studied law, not 

1 This title is of course derived from Irving's Knickerbocker's 
History of New York. 



AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




Washington Irving. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 91 

and a friend, James Kirke Paulding, in the production of a 
more ambitious series, Salmagundi. These are unimportant 
in themselves, but are valuable as reminders that Irving 
began with imitations of the Spectator, as American boys of 
literary instincts had been doing for half a century. His 
juvenile pen name, Jonathan Oldstyle, also suggests certain 
qualities which are found in all his writings. 

The one important work of the first period is Knicker- 
bocker s History of New York, published in 1809. In this 
Irving got away from the strict Addisonian tradition, and 
especially from the tendency to preach which characterized 
most youthful imitations of Addison. The History purports 
to be the work of Diedrich Knickerbocker, a descendant of 
the old Dutch settlers, who writes of the three early Dutch 
governors of New York. 1 According to tradition it was 
planned as a burlesque on pedantic histories, but Irving 
abandoned this design and let his humorous fancy lead him 
where it would. He had begun the work before the death of 
his betrothed, and forced himself to finish it as a distraction 
from his grief. Though, like much eighteenth-century 
English fun, it occasionally grows too free to suit modern 
taste, it is an American classic, and one of the acknowledged 
masterpieces of American humor. 

The second group of Irving's writings includes the three 
works produced in England after the failure of the cutlery 
business. The earliest of these was the Sketch Book, the 
first parts of which were published in 1819, just ten years 

1 Irving hoaxed the public by publishing in the New York news- 
papers, first, an account of the disappearance of Diedrich Knicker- 
bocker from his boarding place ; next, an advertisement signed by 
the supposed landlord, who gave formal notice that unless Diedrich 
Knickerbocker returned by a certain day a manuscript which he had 
left would be published to pay his board bill. The History was then 
announced as this manuscript. 



92 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



after the Knickerbocker's History. Irving had now decided to 
depend on literature for a livelihood, and he turned for ma- 
terial partly to the romantic traditions of the Hudson River 

valley, with which he 
was familiar as a boy, 
partly to his experi- 
ences and observa- 
tions of travel. 1 Pres- 
ent-day readers 
prefer the former, 
especially the two 
stories " Rip van 
Winkle " and the 
" Legend of Sleepy 
Hollow," but at the 
time of publication, 
before travelers' de- 
scriptions had become 
so common, the pic- 
tures of English life, 
and particularly the 
sketches of English 
Christmas customs, 
were also enthusias- 
tically received. The 
book was very popu- 
lar in both England 
and America, and Irving at once set to work on Bracebridge 

1 It is to be feared that many readers miss the point of the title, 
Sketch Book, by Geoffrey Crayon Gent. In Irving's day sketch- 
ing was a common and valued accomplishment, and a tourist carried 
his sketch-book and crayons as he now carries his kodak. The 
name "Geoffrey" may reflect Irving's fondness for the quaint and 
old-fashioned. 




Joseph Jefferson as Rip van Winkle. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 93 

Hall, in which he continues the two kinds of sketches that 
had been most praised — the accounts of Christmas customs 
in England, and the Hudson River traditions. The third 
volume of this group, the Tales of a Traveller, appeared in 
1824. By this time Irving had, so to speak, written himself 




Ichabod Crane's school ; by Darley, a famous early American 
illustrator. 

out, as is shown by the somewhat scrappy contents of this 
last collection. It contains stories which he had gathered 
during continental travel, sketches made by cutting up an 
abandoned novel, and some miscellaneous pieces. While 
worth reading, it is inferior to the two works that immedi- 
ately preceded it. 

In the Sketch Book Irving had gotten away from both the 
manner of Salmagundi and that of Knickerbocker's His- 



94 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

tory, and had developed a style of his own. Suggestions 
there are, of course, of English authors, especially of the 
more quiet, formal, and humorous writers of the eighteenth 
century, but there was no direct imitation. The most notice- 
able characteristics of all these works are a fondness for the 
old-fashioned and the picturesque in both subject and style, 
humor, sentiment which rarely becomes sentimentality, and 
that indescribable good taste which always reminds us that 
the author was a gentleman. 

The third group of Irving's writings deals with Spanish 
subjects. After the Tales of a Traveller Irving looked about 
for new literary material, and finally went to Spain, where 
he planned to translate a treatise on Columbus. He soon 
decided, however, on an original work. The most important 
results of this Spanish residence were the Life of Columbus, 
the Conquest of Granada, and the Alhambra. 1 The Life of 
Columbus is a serious, painstaking, and well-written work, 
but Irving was not at his best as a biographer. The boy who 
left school at sixteen had not acquired the training in scholarly 
methods which the modern historian needs, and a man of 
Irving's temperament was a little too likely to see the pictur- 
esque rather than the important events in his hero's career. 
The Conquest of Granada is in the form of a chronicle sup- 
posed to be written by an old monk. This use of an imag- 
inary author worked well in case of the humorous Knicker- 
bocker's New York, but was less successful in an attempt to 
portray serious history. The Conquest of Granada contains, 
however, many fine bits of description and narration. 

1 Other works in this group were the Voyages of the Companions of 
Columbus, and the Legends of the Conquest of Spain. The latter is 
said to have been written while the author was in Spain, but was 
published much later. The Voyages of the Companions of Columbus 
and the Alhambra were finished in England, whither Irving re- 
turned in 1829. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 95 



The most popular book of the Spanish group has been the 
Alhambra. Irving made two extended visits to the old Moor- 
ish palace from which this work takes its name, and while 
there collected the numerous legends which he recounts so 
successfully, and material for the descriptions which accom- 
pany them. The Alhambra has been called a " Spanish 
Sketch Book." It contains more narrative than its English 
prototype, and has a little less strength and virility of style, 
and more of the half serious, ironical 
way of looking at things which the au- 
thor of Knickerbocker always retained. 

The last two groups of Irving's writ- 
ings fall outside the strict limits of the 
period under discussion. On his return 
to America in 1832 after an absence of 
seventeen years, there was a demand 
from patriotic admirers that the greatest 
American author should write some- 
thing on purely American themes. 
Irving seems to have recognized 
clearly that his genius was best fitted 
to deal with the old, the romantic, 
and the picturesque. Nevertheless, he 
did, between 1833 and 1837, produce 
a group of writings on American subjects. He made a 
journey with a government exploring party to the region 
west of the Mississippi and wrote his experiences in 
A Tour on the Prairies. He compiled from the papers of 
John Jacob Astor an account of that merchant's remark- 
able fur-trading ventures on the Pacific coast, which he 
called Astoria; and he bought from a Western adventurer 
a crude manuscript narrative which he put in shape and pub- 
lished as the Adventures of Captain Bonneville. All this is 




An English cartoon of 
Irving. 



96 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 97 

good, respectable work, readable to-day if one gets started 
on it, but it is the least valuable part of Irving's writings. 

The fifth and last group of writings includes a Life of 
Washington, a Life of Goldsmith, and a Life of Mahomet. 
As a work of literature the Goldsmith is the best, and is in- 
deed delightful reading, though for students it is superseded 
by other biographies based on more recent scholarship. The 
comments which have been made on the Life of Columbus 
apply, on the whole, to the Life of Washington. 

It is proof of Irving's conscientiousness as a writer that all 
his work is so surprisingly uniform in quality. Practically 
everything that he wrote is included in his collected works, 
and there is nothing of which he need have been ashamed. 
His most important volumes are, however, Knicker- 
bocker's History of New York, the Sketch Book, Bracebridge 
Hall, the Tales of a Traveller, the Alhambra, and the Con- 
quest of Granada. If a still more restricted list were required, 
most readers would probably agree on Knickerbocker's 
History, the Sketch Book, and the Alhambra. Irving is 
one of those writers whose charm defies formal analysis. 
The most important characteristics of his style, so far as they 
can be summarized, have been mentioned in the discussion 
of individual works. A word remains to be said on his im- 
portance in the development of American literature. He 
was the first of the greater American writers of the nine- 
teenth century, and he was the author of the first American 
books, with the exception of Franklin's Autobiography, 
which a cultured American need be ashamed to say he has 
not read. He was the first American of note to write without 
a didactic purpose. The important writers who preceded 
him, and some of those who followed him, seemed to feel 
that in whatever they wrote they must either teach or preach. 
Knickerbocker's History, the Sketch Book, and the Alhambra 



98 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




James Fenimore Cooper. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 99 

otter us, not useful information or direct exhortation 
to moral or spiritual good, but only clean, refined, artistic 
enjoyment. Finally, Irving was the first American to win 
general recognition abroad purely as a writer. Both the ex- 
cellence of his works and the charm of his personality did 
much to promote a better feeling between English and 
American men of letters. 1 

James Fenimore Cooper. — James Fenimore Cooper, 
the second of the greater Knickerbocker writers, did not come 
to New York City until his literary career was well under way. 
He was born in New Jersey in 1789, but spent his boyhood 
at Cooperstown, New York, then a frontier village which his 
father had founded. At the age of thirteen he entered 
Yale College, was dismissed for some misdemeanor, and 
sailed on a merchant vessel as a preparation for the navy. 2 
He was commissioned midshipman in 1808. Three years 
later he married, and resigned from the service, and for 
several years lived with no special occupation except man- 
aging his estates. It was not until 1820, when Cooper was 
thirty-one years of age, that he wrote his first novel, Pre- 
caution. 3 This is a story of fashionable English life, of a sort 

1 During his long period of residence abroad Irving was cordially 
welcomed in the best social and literary circles of England, and was 
a close friend of Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, and many other 
prominent English men of letters. 

2 This was before the days of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
and officers in the navy secured their preliminary training in the 
life of a sailor on board some merchant vessel. 

3 Before this Cooper had written nothing for publication, and 
the tradition is that he disliked writing to such an extent that he 
often neglected necessary correspondence. One day, while reading 
a dull story, he said to his wife, "I could write a better novel than 
that myself." "Why don't you, then ? " replied Mrs. Cooper, skepti- 
cally. Cooper was not the sort of man to decline a "dare," and he 
began at once on Precaution. What is more remarkable, he 
finished it. 



100 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

which modern readers find very dull. The next year, how- 
ever, he wrote the Spy, his first historical novel, and followed 
this in 1823 with the Pioneers, his first frontier tale, and the 
Pilot, his first sea story. In 1822 he removed to New York. 
From this time until his death in 1851, he wrote almost 
steadily. Besides his thirty-two novels he published a History 
of the Navy of the United States, ten volumes of travels, and 
many miscellaneous and controversial works. From 1826 
to 1833 he was in Europe, and traveled much, but in the 
seven years he produced seven novels, besides other writings. 
On his return to America, he became involved in a series of 
controversies with American newspapers which embittered 
his later years, and which had a bad effect on some of his 
later work. 1 

Cooper's best novels fall into three groups — the historical 
tales, of which the only noteworthy representative is the Spy; 
the frontier stories, of which the most important are the five 
Leather stocking Tales; and the sea stories, of which the best 
is the Pilot 2 and the next best the Red Rover. Many of the 



1 One cause of the controversy was a quarrel between Cooper and 
his neighbors over the right of the public to use as a picnic ground 
some land belonging to the family estate. A more serious cause was 
found in the criticisms of America and the advice to his country- 
men, which he published after he went abroad. Cooper seems to 
have been a good-hearted man who was wholly lacking in tact, and 
who had a marvelous ability for irritating and offending people 
when he really wished them well. It is now plain that he was one 
of the most loyal of Americans, but it is easy to see how editors were 
perfectly conscientious when they accused him of lack of patriotism, 
and called him a defamer of his country. Cooper brought suit 
against several prominent newspapers, conducted them in person, 
though he was not a lawyer, and won almost all of them. For more 
details of this unfortunate affair one must see Professor Lounsbury's 
Life of Cooper. 

2 The Pilot might also be ranked as an historical novel, since the 
hero is a real person, John Paul Jones. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 101 

other stories have special excellences, but most also have 
marked defects. Some were written with a controversial 
purpose and showed a little ill-temper, others were spoiled 
by didacticism. Of those named, all but two, the Path- 
finder and the Deerslayer, were written before 1833. 

The Sjyy was based on a story which the author had heard 
regarding one of Washington's secret service agents in the 
Revolution. One of the characters is recognized as Wash- 
ington in disguise, though his real name is never mentioned. 
The scene is laid in Westchester county, New York, a region 
with which the author was thoroughly familiar. The Pio- 
neers has as its hero Nathaniel Bumpo, generally known as 
Leatherstocking, an old hunter such as Cooper's father 
doubtless found living in the woods when he established 
his frontier settlement, and it pictures many frontier scenes 
which must have been familiar to the author as a boy. After 
creating the character of Leatherstocking in the Pioneers, 
Cooper wrote four other tales, the Last of the Mohicans 
(1826), the Prairie (1827), the Pathfinder (1S40), and the 
Deerslayer (1841), which if taken in proper order give the life 
history of this hero. 1 The Pilot is said to have been under- 
taken to prove that an author who really knew the sea could 
make more of the sailor's life than Scott had done in the 
Pirate. As his hero Cooper chose the American fighter and 
adventurer John Paul Jones. The Red Rover, which though 
exciting is regarded by most readers as inferior to the Pilot, 

1 In the Deerslayer, Leatherstocking is a young man, just show- 
ing his capacity for woodcraft ; in the Last of the Mohicans, he is 
the scout and hunter in his early prime ; in the Pathfinder, he is 
a somewhat elderly lover, who resigns the one woman he has admired 
to a younger rival ; in the Pioneers, he is the hunter already past 
middle life, who feels crowded by the advancing settlements ; in 
the Prairie, he is the old man driven forth by the on-coming civi- 
lization to die on the great plains of the West. 



102 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




«' 



1 







Monument on site of Otsego Hull, Cooper's residence at Cooperstown. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 103 

tells of adventures on an English ship manned by American 
colonists before the Revolution. 

In the better stories of Cooper the element of adventure 
is prominent. All show certain defects and certain excel- 
lences which are characteristic of the author. The chief de- 
fects are such as might be expected from Cooper's lack of 
early literary training, from the haste with which he wrote, 
and from his temperament. He is occasionally guilty of 
rhetorical and in a few cases even of grammatical crudities 
which a more careful and deliberate writer would have 
avoided. He failed, or at least succeeded but imperfectly, 
in representing more complex types of character, such as the 
men and the women of the cities. His attempts at humor 
are often unsuccessful. It is also sometimes said that his 
stronger characters, and especially his Indians, are untrue 
to life and are only bookish aggregations of virtues and vices. 
There is undoubtedly a certain amount of truth in this last 
charge, but the same fault might be found with most other 
tales of adventure. 1 

1 Cooper's defects are perfectly obvious, but it will generally be 
found that the reader who is greatly troubled by them cares little 
for any stories of adventure. The whole question of realism and 
romanticism in fiction comes in here. The romanticist likes to 
picture his heroes as all heroic, his villains as wholly bad, his beau- 
tiful heroines as always beautiful. The realist protests that men 
are not really so simply constituted, that every character contains 
some good and some bad elements. The romanticist answers that 
though this is true, we all like to imagine our friends as perfect 
and our enemies as wholly evil. From this the two opposing schools 
may pass to more weighty and more subtle arguments, but at the 
end the question what each reader likes will depend on his tempera- 
ment. Many critics, among them Mark Twain, have pointed out 
inconsistencies and impossibilities in Cooper's descriptions and nar- 
ratives. The only possible defense is that the person who reads the 
story as Cooper intended it to be read never notices the discrep- 
ancies and that it is as unfair to search them out as to examine the 
trees and stones in an oil painting with a magnifying glass. A 



104 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

It may be said to Cooper's credit that, in his better works 
at least, he regarded his own limitations, and attempted only 
the things that he could do. His chief characters, such as 
Harvey Birch in the Spy, Long Tom Coffin in the Pilot, and 
Leatherstocking are plain, healthy men of the sort that he 
understood well and could portray. His plots, while they 
may be technically weak, are simple, and usually move to an 
end that is inevitable. His work is always clean, and fresh, 
and highminded. When one thinks how cheap, melodra- 
matic, and blood-curdling other writers have often made the 
story of frontier life, one can better appreciate how well 
Cooper handled his material. For many readers his descrip- 
tions of nature have great charm. Long descriptive passages 
in novels are now generally viewed with disfavor, but 
Cooper's, though longer than most, are so spontaneous and 
seem so much a part of the story that the temptation to skip 
them is small. 

Though Charles Brockden Brown was an honorable pred- 
ecessor, Cooper was the first American novelist to win gen- 
eral and lasting popularity. His works have been translated 
into many different languages, and have been read, and are 
still read, the world over. 1 In many respects he was a liter- 
ary pioneer. In choice of subjects he took a hint from 
Scott, but Scott had little influence on his literary maimer. 

student — a young woman by the way — recently objected that 
the heroines in the Last of the Mohicans were represented as beauti- 
ful and attractive throughout, though women who endured the hard- 
ships of the forest for days without toilet facilities would be "per- 
fect frights." Perhaps she was right. How many of the readers 
who have enjoyed Cooper's tale thought of it as they read ? 

1 Cooper has always been a favorite in Germany, and there are 
several translations of his works into German. That his popularity 
is not confined to lower-class readers is indicated by the fact that 
at least two expensive "de luxe" editions of his works have appeared 
in Germany during the last three years. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 105 



He created three types of American novel — the historical 
novel, the sea tale, and the tale of frontier and Indian life. 
The latter, especially, has been attempted hundreds of times, 
but Cooper's stories still remain the best of their class. 

William Cullen Bryant. — William Cullen Bryant, 
the third of the greater Knickerbocker writers, also came to 
New York after he was well started on his career. He was 
born in Cummington, Massachu- 
setts, in 1794. He spent one year 
at Williams College, but left at the 
age of seventeen to take up the 
study of law. When only thirteen 
he had written the Embargo, a po- 
litical satire that was twice pub- 
lished. As literature this was of 
course worthless, but it shows his 
early development. At the age of 
seventeen or eighteen he wrote the 
greater part of " Thanatopsis," * 
and at nineteen " To a Water- 
fowl." His first volume of poems, 

a thin pamphlet, appeared in 1821. Meanwhile, he had 
been admitted to the bar, and he continued as a moder- 
ately successful country lawyer until 1825. During this 
time his literary associations were mostly with Boston; 
but in 1825 he abandoned his law practice and removed to 
New York, where he became editor of a short-lived magazine, 
and later of the New York Eve?iing Post. For more than 
fifty years he was a New York newspaper man, having part 
of the time both the business and the financial management 
of the Post, He died in 1878. 




William Cullen Bryant. 



1 The poem was not published until 1817. 
was written later. 



The last paragraph 



The Embargo. 

1UST publifttd, xai for &)e, bjr 
J HASTINGS, BTHBUIDOB V BUSS, 

THE EMBARGO ;—0r 

Skitcvm or th TtM«»— a Sttirt, ih« (ttoai 
Edition, corrtlUd «od rohrj-a — J'o^.i her with 
the SPANISH REVOLUTION, ami other Poena, ' 

By WltLIAM QgjjMHI StXAMT. j 



An advertisement of Bryant's juvenile satire. 



106 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

As an editor Bryant did much to improve the character of 
newspaper English, both by his example and by rules that he 

laid down for the guid- 
ance of his subordi- 
nates. He also wrote 
a number of creditable 
tales, sketches, and mis- 
cellaneous essays. It 
is as a poet, however, 
that he deserves to be 
remembered. He wrote poetry for more than seventy years, 
yet his total output was small — smaller than that of any 
other American poet of first rank 
except Poe. As has been seen, 
two of his best poems were writ- 
ten before he was twenty years 
of age; and nearly one third of 
his verse had been written be- 
fore he came to New York in 
1825. 1 The other two thirds of 
the contents of his rather thin 
volume was composed as he 
found time during the remain- 
ing fifty-three years of his life. 
It may be because poetry was an 
avocation, to be indulged in only 
when all things were favorable, 

that his work is so nearly uniform. He never excelled, per- 
haps never equaled, his two early poems " Thanatopsis " 

1 This estimate does not take into account his verse translation 
of Homer, which he made late in life as an intellectual diversion 
after the death of his wife. It is a very literal version, and it has 
some poetic excellences, but it is not one of the works on which the 
poet's fame rests. 




Bryant in his earlier years. 






THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 107 



and " To a Waterfowl," but he rarely failed to maintain a 
high standard. 

As a poet Bryant was influenced by Wordsworth, and in 
his early years by a group of sentimental and melancholy 
English poets who are now almost forgotten — among them 
Blair, author of the " Grave " and Henry Kirke White. 
It was while fresh from the reading of this latter group that 



J&JL& 




^W*S 


^~T : . -t^w- 







Bryant's home at Roslyn, Long Island. 

he wrote " Thanatopsis." The influence of Wordsworth 
is seen in his verse form, though he never imitated slavishly, 
and also perhaps in his fondness for subjects taken from 
nature. His attitude toward nature was, however, wholly 
different from that of Wordsworth. He loved the flowers 
and the forests, but he did not go to them for any special 
philosophical teaching. If he drew morals from them, it 
was by means of some simple comparison. Indeed, it is one 
of his weaknesses that his rather obvious morals often seem 



108 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

to form no necessary part of the poems to which they are 
attached. 1 

Personal characteristics of Bryant show themselves in his 
poems. He was somewhat cold, and though not in the least 
gloomy or morbid he had a fondness for quiet melancholy. 
His favorite seasons were the winter and the autumn. 2 Two 
things appealed to him with particular force: first, nature, 
especially in her simpler forms, such as the woods and the 
common flowers; and, second, the thought of the eternal 
change which is always going on in the universe, and of which 
death is a part. Both these ideas appear in " Thanatopsis," 
where he shows his fondness for the quiet woods, and views 
death, not in relation to a future life, and not as a breaking 
of ties with loved ones, but as part of the great universal 
change to which all created things are subject. Many 
of his other poems show the same ideas, either singly or 
combined. 3 

Bryant's influence as a literary man was of a sort that 
America needed. Many of his contemporaries, as will be 
seen later in this chapter, were inclined to favor hurried, 
" inspired," poetic composition. Bryant treated poetry as 
a high art, to be practiced quietly and painstakingly. Even 

'See, for example, "Thanatopsis," "The West Wind," "Hymn 
to the North Star," "A Forest Hymn," and others. As has been 
seen, the moralizing paragraph of "Thanatopsis" was actually 
written after the rest of the poem had been published. 

2 Among his poems with winter settings are his fairy story, "The 
Little People of the Snow," and his love song, beginning "Soon as 
the glazed and gleaming snow." Most fairy tales, and the love 
songs of most poets seem naturally to have a spring or summer 
background. For his treatment of the autumn see "The Death of 
the Flowers," "Autumn Woods," "November," etc. 

3 See for poems on nature "The Yellow Violet," "To the Fringed 
Gentian," "The Painted Cup," "Evening Wind," and very many 
others ; for the idea of change see "The Past," "The Ages," "Hymn 
to the North Star," etc. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 109 



as a boy, while other poets were rushing into print with verses 
written in a few hours, he kept " Thanatopsis " by him, un- 
published, for several years. It was fortunate that for at 
least a quarter of a century a man with this sane view was 
generally respected by his countrymen as their greatest 
poet. Unlike Irving and Cooper, he never won great fame 
abroad, and to-day few critics would rank him as high as some 
of his successors, but his position in the history of American 
literature is secure, and some of his poems seem as certain to 
endure as does any American verse. His range is limited, and 
he appeals to 
readers only when 
they are in certain 
moods, but his 
■best work has a 
restraint and a 
calm dignity 
which few, if any, 
other American 
poets have sur- 
passed. 

Lesser New 
York Writers. — 
Irving, the essayist, Cooper, the romancer, and Bryant, the 
poet, seem sure of permanent places in the history of Ameri- 
can literature, but most of their New York contemporaries 
are passing into oblivion, or are remembered only as the 
authors of single works. FitzGreene Halleck was an- 
other New Englander who was attracted to the commercial 
center of the country. For many years he held a clerkship 
in a New York business house, and made poetry an avoca- 
tion. He joined with his friend Joseph Rodman Drake in 
writing the Croaker Poems, a series of clever comments on 




Bryant, Daniel Webster, and Irving at the me- 
morial services for Cooper in 1852. 



110 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



current topics, which appeared anonymously in the Evening 
Post. These verses are still remembered for the stir they 
made in their day, but most readers will find them un- 
interesting. Halleck's masters were Campbell and Byron, 
and his longest piece, " Fanny," is slightly suggestive of 
Don Juan. His best known poems are " Marco Bozzaris," 

long a favorite school 
declamation, and the 
lines on the death of 
his friend Drake. 1 

Joseph Rodman 
Drake was a native of 
New York City, who, 
after suffering various 
hardships from ill- 
health and poverty, 
died in 1820 at the 
early age of twenty- 
five. His poetic gift 
was apparently greater 
than that of Halleck. 
His one poem of im- 
portance is " The Cul- 
prit Fay," in which he 
tries to show that American scenes may inspire imagina- 
tive poetry, by narrating the adventures of a fairy on the 
shores of the Hudson River. The work is very uneven, and 
gives evidence of immaturity, but is highly fanciful, and in 

1 The gem of this poem, and probably the best thing Halleck ever 
wrote, is the stanza : 

"Green be the turf above thee, 
Friend of my better days ! 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
Nor named thee but to praise." 




FitzGreene Halleck. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 111 



places truly lyrical. 1 Some lines of " The American Flag," 
once a favorite of the school readers, run smoothly, but the 
bombastic imagery of the poem now seems almost ludicrous. 
Three New York writers of some fame in their own day are 
now remembered each for a single song. John Howard 
Payne, the author of " Home, Sweet Home," led a wander- 
ing life, but he was 
born in New York, 
and belongs to that 
city if to any par- 
ticular spot. He 
was connected with 
the stage in Europe 
and America, and 
wrote, translated, 
and adapted a num- 
ber of dramas. It 
is in one of these, 
" Clari, the Maid of 
Milan, "that "Home, 
Sweet Home," oc- 
curs. Samuel 
Woodworth and 
George P. Morris 
were both editors 
of New York journals, 
only for "The Old 




Joseph Rodman Drake. 



The former is now remembered 
Oaken Bucket," the latter for 
" Woodman, Spare that Tree," but other lyrics by both were 
once well known. Most of the songs of the early nineteenth 



1 Those who have access to the poem should notice the peculiar 
prefatory note in which Drake apparently tries, without telling an 
untruth, to give the impression that he wrote the poem in three 
days. 



112 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



century were pathetically sentimental, and had an element 
of mild moralizing. In substance " The Old Oaken Bucket " 
and " Home Sweet Home " are similar to hundreds of others. 
These two have survived partly because they are better 

poetry, partly, perhaps, 
because they were set 
to taking music. 

There is space here 
to mention but one 
more of the many New 
York writers, James 
Kirke Paulding. 
Paulding came to New 
York as a raw country 
boy from " up state," 
and many of his later 
writings have to do with 
frontier life. His early 
collaboration with Irving 
in Salmagundi has been 
mentioned. He wrote 
freely in prose and verse, 
and was especially fond 
of satire. Among his writings are the Backwoodsman, a 
descriptive poem, Koningsmarke, the Long Finne, and The 
Dutchman's Fireside, novels, and John Bull and Brother 
Jonathan, a political satire. 




John Howard Payne. 



New England 



The Connecticut Writers. — Connecticut had now lost its 
literary prestige, and was second in importance not only 
to New York, but probably to Boston. The successors of 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 113 

the Hartford Wits seem to have inherited chiefly the weak- 
ness of their masters. They inclined to the sentimental and 
the didactic, and they cared more for volume and rapidity 
of writing than for finished production. 

One of the most typical of these writers was Lydia 
Huntley Sigourney. Her poems are moral and tearfully 
sentimental, and her fluency may be judged from the fact that 
she had a hand in the composition of forty-six volumes and 
contributed to periodicals more than two thousand pieces in 
prose and verse. It is hard to imagine anything more com- 
monplace than her work, but it suited the taste of the time, 
and she had thousands of readers, not all, by any means, of 
the uncultured class. 

James Gates Percival was a far abler writer. During 
his lifetime he was often seriously mentioned among the 
greater American poets, but certain defects in his work have 
doomed him to a later oblivion that he does not quite deserve. 
He was born in Connecticut in 1795, was educated at Yale, 
and had a career that shows his great versatility. He was 
successively law student, lecturer, doctor, professor of chem- 
istry at West Point, philologist on the editorial staff of 
Webster's Dictionary, and state geologist of Connecticut 
and of Wisconsin. He was an accomplished linguist, versed 
both in the classics and in modern literatures. Still, as a 
poet he was one of the extreme devotees of the theory that 
a poem should come by inspiration, not, like a statue or a 
picture, by study and patient labor. He refused to revise 
his own poems. The result is that his works are a mass of 
verse, often imitative and full of crude faults, though con- 
taining here and there bits of the truest poetry. 

Among Connecticut writers was also Samuel G. Good- 
rich, publisher, editor, and originator of the Peter Parley 
stories. The latter are an interesting expression of the 



114 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

common feeling that no book was worth while unless it had 
an immediate practical purpose. They aimed to teach by 
interweaving facts in a fictitious narrative. Each volume 
recorded some rather tame adventures of some imaginary 
people, and introduced much information regarding history, 
geography, science, etc. 1 Seventy-five years ago probably 

most boys and girls in the 
northern United States 
read some of these books. 
It would be interesting 
to know what they really 
thought of them. A gen- 
eration familiar with 
more exciting stories finds 
them wholly flat and un- 
interesting, and prefers to 
take its facts and its fic- 
tion separately. 

Massachusetts Writers. 
— In Boston, though lit- 
tle was written that 
takes high rank, forces 
were at work which had 
important results in the 

William Ellery Charming. .. . . rr , 1 

succeeding period. Ihe 
old-time Calvinism was largely superseded by Unitarianism, 
and Harvard College and most of the older churches passed 
into the control of the more liberal sect. This change was 

1 Sample titles are : Peter Parley's Tales about the Sun, Moon, 
and Stars; Peter Parley's Tales about Great Britain; Parley's Tales 
about Ancient Rome. Goodrich himself was the author of the first 
books in the series, but afterward he hired others to write volumes 
in the same style. All were published as by Peter Parley. Haw- 
thorne wrote one volume. 







THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 115 



accompanied by many heartburnings and much discussion. 
At first it drew into religious controversy men who might 
better have written on other subjects, but later the greater 
freedom probably had a good effect on literature. Before 
the end of the period there were some beginnings of the moral 
agitation against slavery which had so strong an effect on 
the writings of the suc- 
ceeding years. In the 
early part of the cen- 
tury the Anthology 
Club, 1 an association of 
young men of literary 
instincts, did much for 
literature, and was con- 
cerned with the estab- 
lishment in 1815 of the 
North American Review, 
one of the most im- 
portant of American 
journals. 

One of the ablest 
members of the An- 
thology Club was 
William Ellery Chan- Richard Henry Dana 

NING, who began his 

career by writing literary essays, but who became the 
leader of the Unitarian movement and devoted himself 
mostly to religious discussions. This fact has tended to 




1 Among the members of the Anthology Club were John Quiney 
Adams, afterwards President of the United States, and at one time 
professor of belles lettres in Harvard ; Joseph Story, the noted lawyer 
and jurist; Edward Everett and George Ticknor, whose service 
in introducing German educational methods has been mentioned. 



116 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



restrict his readers to members of his own sect, and the 
charm of his prose is not so generally known as it should be. 
A more versatile writer was Richard Henry Dana, 1 who 
attempted essays, stories, and, somewhat late in life, poems. 
Dana had much ability, but he was erratic, and too much 
inclined to disregard accepted standards of criticism. 2 

The Revolutionary group of women writers in Boston was 

succeeded by several authors of 
sentimental poems and tales. 
Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, who 
was later known for her activ- 
ities in the antislavery move- 
ment, began her career with 
two historical novels, the first, 
Hobomok, published in 1824, 
when she was twenty-one years 
of age. Miss Catherine M. 
Sedgwick hardly belongs to the 
same group, since her home was 
in western Massachusetts. Her 
tendency toward moral and intel- 
lectual didacticism may be in- 
ferred from the fact that for fifty years she was preceptress 
of a school for young ladies. Her novels are, however, far 
superior to the ordinary goody-goody stories of the time. 
The Linwoods, an historical tale of the Revolution, is prob- 
ably her best. 

Massachusetts was the home of several orators of na- 

1 Not to be confused with his son, the author of Tivo Years Before 
the Mast. See the next chapter. 

2 Among Dana's most interesting writings are two weirdly im- 
aginative stories, "Paul Felton" and "Tom Thornton," and a 
strange narrative poem, "The Buccaneer," in which a ghostly horse 
appears to punish a pirate for his cruelty. 




Daniel Webster. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 117 

tional fame. The greatest was Daniel Webster, who, 
though born in New Hampshire and graduated from Dart- 
mouth College, was long associated with Boston. Webster 




Edward Everett. 

lived well into the next period, but many of his most 
famous orations were delivered before 1833. In his occa- 
sional addresses, his speeches in Congress, and his pleas at the 
bar Webster was distinguished by a dignified and ponderous 
manner, which seemed especially impressive when he in- 



118 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

dulged in occasional outbursts of feeling. He was a direct 
follower of the weightier orators of the Revolutionary time, 
and he had a personality and a physique that fitted well with 
the weighty manner. Edward Everett was also an orator 
of the old school, but as was natural in a lifelong student of 
the classics, his style was more formal, and it was sometimes 
over-adorned. Occasionally he suggests Burke. The speeches 
of Webster and Everett are examples of the older American 
oratory at its best, and as such they are American classics, 
though later tendencies are toward a simpler style of public 
speaking. 1 

Other New England Writers. — New England writers 
outside Connecticut and Massachusetts were relatively un- 
important. John Xeal, of Maine, was an amusing charac- 
ter, to whom it is hard to deny a certain amount of genius. 
He published novels, poems, and literary criticisms. The 
novels, though formless and bombastic, probably give the 
best evidence of his ability. 2 Among the most important 
of these are Logan and Seventy-sir, the latter a story of 
the Revolutionary war. 

1 Webster's four most famous orations are his address at the lay- 
ing of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill monument, his oration on 
Adams and Jefferson, his reply to Hayne in the United States Senate 
(1830), and the "Seventh of March speech" (1850). Others, how- 
ever, show his style almost equally well. Representative speeches of 
Everett are "The Circumstances favorable to the progress of litera- 
ture in America," "Adams and Jefferson," and a Fourth of July 
address delivered at Dorchester in 1855. 

2 Neal's most remarkable characteristic was his self-assurance. 
He went to England, where he seems to have secured a place among 
literary men simply by assuming that he belonged there. In an 
article in Blackwoods he discusses his own poems, points out their 
faults, and concludes; "Yet, nevertheless, containing altogether 
more sincere poetry, more exalted, original, pure poetry, than all 
the works of all the other authors that have ever appeared in 
America." He also shared the American belief that hasty composi- 
tion was commendable, and boasted of the speed at which he wrote. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 119 



Philadelphia 

General Conditions. — During much of the time since the 
death of Franklin Philadelphia has supported creditable 
periodicals, and has given other evidences of much intellec- 
tual culture, but has had few writers of great distinction. 
This was the case during the early years of the nineteenth 
century. Though the city was a literary center, with es- 
pecially strong influences on the South and the West, it has 
left few names that need to be remembered. Joseph 
Dennie, a New Englander by birth and education, came to 
Philadelphia and conducted from 1801 to 1812 the Port- 
folio. His pen name was " Oliver Oldschool," and he af- 
fected the formal manner of the eighteenth-century writers. 
His most popular work was a series of essays known as The 
Lay Preacher. Charles Jared Ingersoll was the author 
of the Inchiquin Letters. These purported to be written by 
a Jesuit in Washington, and were intended to offset the effect 
of many unfavorable letters published by European travelers 
in America. They were the occasion of much controversy, 
though at a time when international feeling was less acute 
they would probably have attracted little attention. 

The South 

General Conditions. — The South was still prominent 
in public affairs, and Southern statesmen maintained a high 
standard of oratory, though none of them quite equaled 
Webster. Among those best remembered in history are 
Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and the picturesque 
John Randolph of Roanoke. The South also contributed 
its share of the new biography and history already mentioned 



120 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

as a product of the time. William Wirt, 1 of Virginia, wrote 
a life of Patrick Henry which is still almost a classic of popu- 
lar biography. Chief Justice Marshall, another Vir- 
ginian, wrote the authorized life of Washington, a thorough 
and conscientious work in five volumes. Mason L. Weems, 
a Virginia preacher and book agent, also wrote a brief biog- 
raphy of Washington, in which he apparently tried to tell, 

not the facts, but the 
things that would make 
the book sell. It is to 
Weems's fertile imagi- 
nation that we owe the 
story of the cherry tree 
and the little hatchet, 
and other picturesque 
but wholly unauthen- 
ticated anecdotes of 
Washington. 

In other forms of lit- 
erature most South- 
erners worked rather 
for their own enjoy- 
ment than with a more 
serious purpose. John Pendleton Kennedy, a Mary- 
land lawyer, wrote Swallow Barn, a series of sketches of 
Southern life, and two historical novels, Horseshoe Robinson 




John C. Calhoun. 



1 Wirt also wrote the Letters of a British Spy, which like the Inchi- 
quin Letters purported to come from a foreigner in America. They 
were less calculated to stir up controversy than were Ingersoll's 
work, many of them being in reality essays on subjects in which 
Wirt was interested. So long as the formal prose of the Addisonian 
school was in vogue, they were looked on as models of style, and 
every American book of selections contained "The Blind Preacher" 
and other extracts. 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 121 

and Rob of the Bowl. These are excellently done, with life, 
action, and picturesque description, though occasionally they 
seem the work of an amateur in letters. Edward Coate 
Pinkney, of Maryland, wrote spirited poems in the manner 
of Byron and Moore. Richard Henry Wilde, who came 
from Ireland to Georgia in his boyhood, wrote poems, mostly 
forgotten except one song, " My Life is like the Summer 
Rose." Francis Scott Key, of Maryland, is remembered 
only as the author of the " Star-Spangled Banner." 

The West 

For the first time in the history of America the region west 
of the Alleghanies began to make itself felt in literature. 1 
At first the settlers in the Ohio valley could communicate 
with the seaboard only over steep and difficult mountain 
roads. Since it was so hard to import reading matter, am- 
bitious Westerners determined to produce their own. News- 
papers, magazines, and books were early published at Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio and later in- other 
towns. The early Western writers had been born and edu- 
cated in the Eastern states, but most of them had absorbed 
the spirit of the new country, with its broad interests and its 
free, humorous outlook on life. The importance of these 
men comes not from the intrinsic value of anything they wrote 
but from the fact that they introduced a new element into 
American literature. 2 

1 Brackenridge (see p. 67) began to write in the earlier period, 
but there was no considerable group of writers before 1800. 

2 The two most notable Western writers of this time were Timothy 
Flint and James Hall. Flint, a native of Massachusetts who spent 
some time in Cincinnati, wrote two historical romances and many 
essays. Hall, who got rather more fully into the spirit of the West, 
was born in Philadelphia and lived in Illinois and in Ohio. Besides 
descriptions of Western life and scenes he wrote poems and tales. 



122 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

General Summary 

Many of the general characteristics of this period were 
noticed in the introduction to the present chapter, and need 
not be repeated here. The most conspicuous fact was the 
production of a body of literature sufficiently important to 
command recognition abroad, and to give Americans them- 
selves real reason for satisfaction. Equally important were 
the changes in the temper and spirit of the time. Over- 
ambitious and misdirected patriotism were still shown in 
some of the magazine ventures, and in some literary criti- 
cism, but on the whole the attitude toward the question of a 
national literature was far saner than in the later Revolu- 
tionary period. American authors gradually escaped from 
the absolute domination of the formal eighteenth-century 
writers without following the extremists of the new school 
in England. In the more important writings, especially 
those of Irving and Cooper, there was less didacticism than 
formerly, though the Peter Parley books and many moraliz- 
ing writings in prose and verse give evidence how many per- 
sons still held the strictest ideas of the relation between litera- 
ture and life. The most unfortunate characteristic of popular 
taste was a fondness for the sentimentally commonplace, 
which America shared at this time with England and the 
Continent. This was, however, a passing affectation which 
left few serious results. 

New York became the literary center of the country, but 
the New York writers were not a school developed within the 
city itself, but were attracted from different places by the 
advantages offered by the metropolis. The Knickerbocker 
group was representative, therefore, not only of New York 
city, but of the more energetic and cosmopolitan spirit of 
i the entire North. It is noteworthy that the three greater 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 123 

men, Irving, Cooper, and Bryant, were distinguished each in a 
different department of letters. 

New England, which had led in the literature of the earlier 
time, and which was to lead even more conspicuously in the 
next half century, was passing through a period of change. 
Before 1833 Puritanism had lost its hold, though its influence 
still remained. There was greater freedom, not only in reli- 
gion, but in all fields of thought. New ideas of education 
were coming in, and men were discovering new interests and 
entering regions of knowledge of which their grandfathers 
had never heard, or into which they were afraid to venture. 
For the time being, however, the literary output of the region 
was relatively unimportant. 

Philadelphia produced no great writers, though it was the 
center of important literary interests. In the South condi- 
tions changed less than in other parts of the country. The 
Southern gentleman clung exclusively to his Addison and his 
Pope long after his Northern contemporaries were reading 
Wordsworth and Shelley, and he still declined to enter 
literature as a serious profession. The settlements west 
of the Alleghanies introduced a new element into American 
life, and into American literature as well, though as might be 
expected, no great classics were produced in the new country. 

All in all, the period of the Knickerbocker writers handed 
on the legacy which it had received, greatly augmented and 
changed for the better in almost every way. America was 
now ready to express herself in literature as never before. 

READINGS AND TOPICS 

General Suggestions. — Though literature in the Knickerbocker 
period is less closely associated with political events than in the 
earlier time, the student should keep in mind the general course of 
American history. He should also always remember the contempo- 



124 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

rary relations of English and American literature. Discussions of the 
literature of the period may be found in Cairns, A History of American 
Literature, Chap. Ill; Wendell, A Literary History of America, pp. 
157-203 ; Trent, A History of American Literature, pp. 187-284. See 
the indexes of these volumes for discussions of particular authors. 
In the study of this and succeeding periods it will be profitable to 
confine attention mostly to the chief authors, and to read the litera- 
ture itself rather than biography and criticism. The best biographies 
are mentioned, however, that they may be used for reference and 
in the preparation of special topics. Biographical sketches of the 
lesser writers may be found in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American 
Biography, Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States, 
and similar works of reference. Selections from all are given in 
Stedman & Hutchinson, A Library of American Literature, and 
from all the poets in Stedman's American Anthology. Many of 
the poets are also represented in Bronson, American Poems. 

NEW YORK 

Stiggestions for Reading. — The standard life of Washington 
Irving is that by Pierre M. Irving in four volumes. The best 
briefer biography is that by Charles Dudley Warner in the Ameri- 
can Men of Letters Series. The student should aim to gain ac- 
quaintance with Knickerbocker's History of New York, the Sketch 
Book, and the Alhambra, and if possible with the Tales of a 
Traveller, Bracebridge Hall, and the Conquest of Granada. It is 
impossible to name the best selections from each, but the follow- 
ing list of suggestions may be helpful. From Knickerbocker's 
History, Book I, Chap. I, Book II, Chap. I, and Book III ; from 
the Sketch Book, "The Voyage," "Rip Van Winkle," "The Country 
Church," "The Widow and her Son," "The Spectre Bridegroom," 
"Westminster Abbey," "Christmas," "Stratford on Avon," "John 
Bull," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"; from the Alhambra, "The 
Journey," " Palaceof the Alhambra," " The Inhabitants of the Alham- 
bra," "The Adventure of the Mason," "Legend of the Arabian 
Astrologer," "Legend of Prince Ahmed," "Legend of the Moor's 
Legacy," "Governor Manco and the Soldier"; from the Tales 
of a Traveller, "The Adventure of My Aunt," "The Bold 
Dragoon," "The Adventure of the German Student," "A Literary 
Dinner," "Wolfert Webber"; from Bracebridge Hall, "The Hall," 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 125 

"Family Servants," "The Stout Gentleman," "Saint Mark's 
Eve," "The Student of Salamanca," "Gypsies," "May-Day," 
"Popular Superstitions"; from the Conquest of Granada, Chaps. 
I, IV, XXV, XLII, LIX, XCIII, XCIX. 

The best life of Cooper is that by Professor Thomas R. Louns- 
bury. A later biography by Mary E. Phillips is in some ways 
attractive. Brief selections from Cooper are of little use. Read 
complete romances. It is desirable to have representatives of 
each class — historical novels, sea tales, and Leatherstocking 
tales — and those who have already read some of Cooper's works 
should choose others of a sort with which they are not familiar. . 
The Spy and the Pilot are the best of their respective classes. 
Many critics rank the Last of the Mohicans first among the Leather- 
stocking Tales. The Pioneers is interesting because it shows how 
Cooper began the series, and portrays frontier life as he himself 
saw it when a boy. 

The authorized life of Bryant is that by Godwin ; the briefer 
biography by Biglow is good. The following suggested list con- 
tains representatives of different classes of Bryant's poems : 
"Thanatopsis," "The Yellow Violet," "To a Waterfowl," "The 
Ages," "March," "Hymn to the North Star," "A Forest Hymn," 
"June," "The African Chief," "The Death of the Flowers," "The 
Past," "The Evening Wind," "To the Fringed Gentian," "Song 
of Marion's Men," "Seventy-Six," "The Battlefield,"- "The 
Crowded Street," "The White-Footed Deer," "The Planting of 
the Apple-Tree," "The Snow-Shower," "Robert of Lincoln," 
"Waiting by the Gate," "The Little People of the Snow," "Abra- 
ham Lincoln," "The Flood of Years." 

So far as time permits of readings from lesser New York authors 
selections may be made from the following list : From Halleck, 
"Marco Bozzaris," "On the Death of J. R. Drake," "Alnwick 
Castle," "Connecticut"; from Drake, "The Culprit Fay," "The 
American Flag" ; from Payne, "Home, Sweet Home" ; from Wood- 
worth, "The Bucket"; from Morris, "Woodman, Spare that 
Tree"; from Paulding, "John Bull and Brother Jonathan," or any 
available selections. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — ■ Biographical sketches of 
the chief writers may profitably be presented to the class. (For 
references see the biographies mentioned above.) The life of 



126 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

John Howard Payne, and the literary friendship of Halleck and 
Drake are picturesque, though less important. The "Washington 
Irving Region" on the Hudson combines picturesqueness with 
literary and historical associations, and may be made the subject 
of an interesting topic, especially if pictures are available for illus- 
tration. (See Johnson, The Picturesque Hudson, Hubbard, Little 
Journeys to the Homes of American Authors, pp. 265-296, Mabie, 
Backgrounds of Literature, pp. 98-131 ; New England Magazine, 23 : 
449-469, and many other easily available references.) Many 
topics based on Irving's writings will suggest themselves, e.g. : 
What kinds of subjects did Irving prefer, and why? Irving's 
fondness for the old and the old-fashioned (Find evidence in his 
choice of subjects, in the quotations that he uses, etc.) ; Irving's 
treatment of the supernatural in his stories (How seriously does 
he take his ghosts ? Does he make the most of his ghost stories ? 
Can you find a way of telling "The Spectre Bridegroom" that will 
make more of the suggestion of the supernatural ? etc. This topic 
to be followed by similar papers on Hawthorne and Poe, and com- 
parisons made) ; A comparison between the Roger de Cover ley 
Papers and selected papers from the Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hall ; 
A comparison between the Sketch Book and some of Goldsmith's 
essays ; The Alhambra (the building) and Irving's Alhambra. 

Among possible topics on Cooper are : The life history and 
character of Natty Bumpo as seen in the Leatherstocking Tales ; 
Cooper's Indians; The character of Harvey Birch ; The Pilot and 
the real Paul Jones; The women in Cooper's tales (for Cooper's 
use of the word "female" see an article by Professor Lounsbury in 
Harper's Magazine, 113:362); Cooper's use of setting; or a de- 
tailed study of the setting of one of the romances, e.g., The Last 
of the Mohicans. 

Suggested topics on Bryant : The choice of subjects in Bryant's 
poems on nature (compared if desired with that of Wordsworth, 
or Whittier) ; Bryant's fondness for autumn and winter (illustrate 
by reference to as many poems as possible) ; Bryant's poems on 
death (compared, if desired, with the usual treatment of the same 
theme in poetry, e.g., in ordinary hymns) ; The religious ideas ex- 
pressed in " Thanatopsis " (supplement this by finding other poems 
that show just what the author's faith was, and see what his biog- 
raphers say on the subject) ; The moral lessons in Bryant's 
poetry (pick out definitely expressed morals). 



THE PERIOD OF THE KNICKERBOCKER WRITERS 127 

Those especially interested will readily find topics on the lesser 
writers, e.g. : An analysis of Drake's "Culprit Fay" ; The sentimental 
songs of New York (see references on Payne, Woodworth, Morris). 
The large number of writers who were editors of newspapers and 
magazines suggests a paper on Journalism and American Literature 
during this period. 

NEW ENGLAND 

Suggestions for Reading. — Most of the New England writers 
of this period need little attention from the general student. Those 
who wish may read from Mrs. Sigourney, "The Indian's Welcome 
to the Pilgrim Fathers," "Indian Names," "The Early Blue Bird" ; 
from Percival, "To Seneca Lake," "The Coral Grove," "Night," 
"It is great for our Country to Die"; from Dana, "The Little 
Beach Bird," "The Moss supplicateth for the Poet," " Paul Felton." 
A twentieth-century boy or girl would find it interesting to dip into 
one of the Peter Parley books, if one should chance to be avail- 
able. Those who have access to a file of the North American Re- 
view might do well to glance at one of the early volumes. Webster 
should not be slighted. For suggestions regarding choice of ora- 
tions from Webster and Everett see footnote, page 118. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — An interesting study might 
be made of a Peter Parley book, compared, if desired, with the 
juvenile books of to-day. Webster's orations may be compared 
with those of the Revolutionary orators, or with those of the later 
period, e.g., Lincoln's. 

THE SOUTH 

Suggestions for Reading. — The student who is especially in- 
terested in political oratory may search out for himself selections 
from Clay, Calhoun, and Randolph. Others might read from Wirt, 
"The Blind Preacher," or if time permits, the Life of Patrick 
Henry; from Kennedy, selections from Swallow Barn; from Pinkney, 
"A Health," "We break the Glass"; from Wilde, "My Life is 
like the Summer Rose," "To the Mocking Bird." 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — A study may be made of 
Southern political oratory, compared if desired with that of the 
North; of the sentimental songs of Pinkney, Wilde, and other 
Southerners, compared, perhaps, with those of Payne, Morris, and 
other Northerners. A comparison might also be made between 
one of Kennedy's novels and one of Cooper's. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 

1833-1883 l 

General Conditions. — The most conspicuous fact in 
American history during the central years of the nineteenth 
century was the dissension between North and South, which 
culminated in the Civil War, and eventually resulted in es- 
tablishing the Union more firmly than before. Equally 
important to the student of American thought were several 
less obvious movements. The growing freedom of religious 
belief, the teachings of science, and the doctrine of evolution 
changed the whole view of the meaning of life. New inven- 
tions and discoveries, the increased use of the steamboat, 
the introduction of the railroad and the telegraph had their 
effect on the intellectual habits of the people. The develop- 
ment of the West made the aggressive frontier type of man 
a greater power in American affairs than he had been since 
the early colonial days. 2 All these movements were reflected 

1 It is hardly necessary to remind the student again that these 
dates marking off a period of fifty years are given only for conven- 
ience. As is usual in literary history no definite events separate 
this period from the preceding and the following. 

2 All of the Presidents of the .United States before 1829 were men 
whose families had been of social importance, and who had the best 
available educational opportunities. From the accession of Jackson 
in 1829 until after the Civil War, they were mostly self-made men 
who had no special advantages of family or position. Several of 
them had no higher educational training, and most of the others 
attended small local colleges. 

128 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 129 

in the literature of the period, and although their influence 
cannot be traced in detail, they should be kept in mind 
throughout the study of the present chapter. 

Early in the period the lead in literature returned from 
New York to Massachusetts, and although there were many 
important writers in other sections of the country, among 
them the two who have perhaps attracted the greatest 
notice abroad, it was the Massachusetts writers who were 
most highly regarded by their contemporaries, and it was they 
who really best expressed American life. For this reason 
they will be considered first in this chapter. 

Conditions in New England. — The period from 1833 to the 
beginning of the Civil War was in many ways the golden age 
of New England. Boston had recovered from the business 
depression of the earlier period without, however, becoming 
so prosperous that the commercial overbalanced the intel- 
lectual life. While New England was thoroughly democratic 
in spirit, there were acknowledged social distinctions, deter- 
mined in part by family, to some extent no doubt by well- 
earned wealth, and largely by intellectual and personal 
worth. The existence of a recognized group of the " best 
people " tended, as it always does, to establish standards of 
conduct and thinking, and to give stability to all the in- 
stitutions of society. On the other hand the lines between 
classes were not so arbitrarily drawn as to cause much unpleas- 
ant feeling. As yet few foreign immigrants had come to this 
region, 1 and the New Englanders were both in blood and in 
thought the descendants of the Puritans. 2 Boston and the 

1 The poorer class of Irish were employed in building railroads 
and doing similar work. Many passages in the writings of Haw- 
thorne, Thoreau, and others show that they were not regarded as 
possible members of the community, but as curiosities, as Orientals 
are in some places to-day. 

2 Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and 



130 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

surrounding towns were sufficiently old and had a sufficiently 
definite tradition to escape the rawness which still clings to 
some Western cities where conditions are otherwise admir- 
able; yet life was in general very simple. Bostonians were 
notoriously self-satisfied, but the fact that they themselves 
recognized this weakness and laughed over it shows that 
their conceit was harmless. 1 Cambridge, now virtually a 
part of Boston, was a quiet college town — if a college town 
is ever quiet — and Concord a peaceful country village cher- 
ishing its Revolutionary traditions. The acres of Lowell 
in the one and of Emerson in the other were almost sur- 
rounded by farms, yet both lived near the centers of village 
life. While the trolley, which now enables the tourist to 
"do " both places in a scant half-day, was undreamed of, 
yet even Concord was near enough to Boston to make pos- 
sible frequent visits, and close acquaintanceship between 
Boston and Concord literary men. Everywhere was the 
thrift, the simple living, the idealism which had come down 
from earlier times. 

By this time the New Englanders had escaped from the 
theological narrowness of their ancestors; most of their 
churches had become Unitarian, and the others were more 

Lowell, as well as many of their lesser literary contemporaries, could 
trace their ancestry back to the early settlers of Plymouth and 
Massachusetts Bay. All those named were born within the limits 
of what was then Massachusetts, all but Longfellow within twenty- 
five miles of Boston, and all but Lowell in the years 1803-1809, in- 
clusive. All lived most of their lives within easy reach of Boston, 
and their literary associations were almost wholly with that city. 
Several of them were close friends, and all of them were pleasant 
acquaintances, meeting often at the famous Saturday Club and 
elsewhere. 

1 Dr. Holmes, the most Bostonian of the Bostonians, says in the 
Autocrat : "Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You 
couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all 
creation straightened out for a crowbar." 



THE PERIOD OF GREA TES T A CHIE YEMEN T 131 

liberal than formerly. During the early years of this period 
they experienced an intellectual awakening which Professor 
Wendell has very happily called the Renaissance of New 
England. They read widely and eagerly, not only in all de- 
partments of English literature, but in the literatures of other 
countries. They grew interested in music and the other arts. 
They responded, especially, to the teachings of the German 
thinkers, whose works had been made available by the group 
of students who were introducing German scholarship at 
Harvard. These new ideas were not confined to the more 
cultured part of the community, but were disseminated 
among the people through the pulpit, the lyceum lecture, 1 
and the magazines. Of the latter, the Atlantic Monthly, 
established in 1857 with Lowell as editor and all the more 
prominent New England men of letters as contributors, was 
one of the great forces in American literature. 

In a time of great earnestness, when important problems 
came before the nation for solution, it was perhaps natural 

1 The lyceum, which developed during the early years, of the 
period under discussion, was a great educational force in New Eng- 
land, and wherever else in the North popular education and breadth 
of interests were general. A lyceum was a local literary society, 
perhaps meeting in a village hall or country schoolhouse, and in- 
cluding all members of the community who wished to attend — 
the minister, the school teacher, the local doctor and lawyer, and a 
variety of persons, young and old, from less distinctly intellectual 
callings. The regular meetings were conducted by the members, 
and consisted of debates, essays, papers, declamations, etc. At 
frequent intervals, however, the society listened to lectures by 
speakers of repute. Emerson, Holmes, Thoreau, Lowell, and other 
writers, many ministers, and some of the most prominent men in 
political life made a practice of lecturing before lyceums. The word 
"lyceum" is still retained in connection with popular lectures and 
lecture agencies ; but the real lyceum, with its intellectual contact 
between persons of widely different position and training, and the 
feeling of close relationship between the members and the noted 
speakers addressing them, is almost wholly a thing of the past. 



132 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

that the descendants of the Puritans should come to the 
front. Two great movements developed in connection with 
the intellectual awakening of New .England — the tran- 
scendental movement, which was concerned with questions 
of theology and philosophy, and the antislavery movement, 
which was concerned with both ethics and politics. One 
group of writers devoted its energies largely to the former, 
another to the latter, and a third, while interested in both, 
was not especially occupied with either. For convenience 
these groups will be considered separately, though it should 
be remembered that the men mentioned in each were pre- 
eminently authors, not philosophers or reformers. 

The New England Transcendentalists 

What Transcendentalism Was. — An attempt to give a 
definition of Transcendentalism would lead to hopelessly 
abstruse discussion, but it is sufficient to know that the 
Transcendentalists, as the term was used in New England, 
were men who believed that the soul of man was of the same 
essence as the divine soul and hence could hold direct com- 
munion with God, and that every individual was born into 
the world with certain ideas which in no way came from ex- 
perience. To a descendant of the Puritans, naturally, the 
most important ideas were those that had to do with 
conduct. The Calvinists had said that knowledge of what 
was right in conduct could be gained only from a study of 
the Word of God as revealed in the Bible. Many of the 
eighteenth-century philosophers had held that it was derived 
only from experience, either the experience of the individual, 
or the accumulated experience of the race. The Transcen- 
dentalists differed from both, and believed that if each man 
would but look earnestly within himself, his own spirit — 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 133 

his own conscience — would tell him what he should and 
should not do. 

The Transcendentalists were in no very definite sense a 
school, and they did not agree in a definite system of phi- 
losophy, but a few leaders of the movement held occasional 
meetings for discussion, and from 1840 to 1844 conducted 
a quarterly periodical, the Dial. 1 Several of them were also 
interested in the Brook Farm community, which existed at 
West Roxbury, near Boston, from 1841 to 1847. 2 

Emerson. — The greatest of the New England Transcen- 
dentalists was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was born in 
1803, in Boston, where his ancestors were of the old intellec- 
tual aristocracy of Massachusetts. The death of his father, 
the pastor of the First Church of Boston, left the family in 
straitened circumstances, but he was educated at Harvard, 
where he ran errands for the president and waited on table 
at commons to help pay his expenses. His entrance into 
his chosen career, the ministry, was deferred by the necessity 
of helping to educate his brothers, and by ill-health, but at 
the age of twenty-six he became pastor of the Old North 
Church, Boston. 3 He held this pastorate three years, when 
he resigned because he did not wish to administer the Lord's 

1 Edited first by Margaret Fuller, then by Emerson. 

2 The so-called Brook Farm community was not really com- 
munistic, since its financial affairs were conducted by a regularly 
organized stock company, according to ordinary business prin- 
ciples. There was, however, an attempt to level social distinctions 
and to live simply and close to the soil. The Association rented a 
large farm on which most of the labor was performed by the work- 
ing members. Among residents at Brook Farm who became more 
or less famous in literature were Hawthorne, Charles A. Dana, 
George Ripley, and George William Curtis. Emerson, Margaret 
Fuller, and others were frequent visitors. 

3 This church, during the pastorate of the Mathers the stronghold 
of orthodoxy, was now, like most of the old New England churches, 
Unitarian. 



134 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Supper. 1 After a visit to Europe, during which he met 
many distinguished men, and began his lifelong friendship 
with Carlyle, he settled in the village of Concord, Massachu- 
setts, 2 and devoted most of his energies to lyceum lecturing. 
His life was outwardly uneventful until 1872, when the shock 
caused by the burning of his house aggravated a tendency 
to mental weakness that had already begun. His memory 
became precarious, his mind lost much of its grasp, and al- 
though he was neither insane nor an imbecile, his time for 
important creative work was over. He lived, however, 
until 1882. 

Emerson began to write rather late in life. His first thin 
volume, entitled Nature, appeared in 1836, and the first and 
the second series of Essays, most of which were adapted from 
lectures, were published in 1841 and 1844, respectively. 3 
His poetry came even later than the prose, the first collection 
not appearing until 1847. 

At first Emerson lectured on subjects from natural history, 
English literature, and his travels, but he soon confined him- 

1 Much has been written of this resignation, both by those who 
condemn Emerson as un-Christian and by those who praise him for 
his conscientiousness. Emerson found that when he officiated at the 
sacrament it was to him a mere ceremony, without the meaning 
that it was supposed to have, and so long as this was so he did not 
wish to take part in it. He did not oppose the ordinance for those 
to whom it had a real significance, and indeed seems rather to have 
regretted that it was not significant to him. His relations with the 
church remained friendly, as is shown by the fact that his salary was 
continued for a time after he ceased to be pastor, and that later he 
often occupied the pulpit. 

2 Hence he was in later years sometimes called ' ' The Sage of 
Concord." 

3 Later prose volumes of Emerson were : Representative Men 
(1850) ; English Traits (185G) (largely based on observations during 
a lecturing trip to England in 1847-1848) ; Society and Solitude 
(1870) ; Letters and Social Aims (1875) (compiled from older 
manuscripts with such aid as he was able to give) ; and Natural 
History of Intellect (1893), published after his death. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



135 



self both in speaking and writing to topics directly related to 
the conduct of life. "Love," "Friendship," "Heroism," 
" Self-Reliance," are titles that 
he gave to both lectures and 
essays, and when he discussed 
" History " or " Politics," it 
was with the same attention 
to problems of life and con- 
duct. The Essays have been 
on the whole the most popular 
of his writings, but there is 
really little difference between 
any of the prose works written 
while he was in his prime. Na- 
ture, his earliest volume, is per- 
haps a trifle more poetical and 
mystical than the Essays, and 
some of the later writings are a 
little more formal. Representa- 
tive Men, which was no doubt 
suggested by Carlyle's Heroes 
and Hero-Worship, is a series 
of papers on great characters 
in history, but Emerson dis- 
cusses questions of morals and 
philosophy which each man 
suggests, rather than the men 
themselves. In almost all his 
prose he presents different aspects of the one thought that 
was really his message to the world — the thought that the 
soul of man is essentially divine, and that he who trusts his 
own better self thus comes into communion and accord with 
God and with all that is best in other men. 




Old North Church, Boston. 



136 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Emerson's prose style was individual. In his reading it 
was striking sentences and phrases that impressed him, 
rather than organized systems of thought, and his own unit 
of composition was the sentence. His habit was to write 
down single sentences or short passages on various topics 
as they came into his mind, and when he prepared a lecture, 
he worked into it these detached passages from his note- 
books. The re-ult was a scrappiness and a lack of close 

coherence which became all the 
more noticeable when the lec- 
tures were transformed into es- 
says. The separate sentences 
are, however, admirably 
wrought out. As Lowell says, 
Emerson always found the one 
inevitable word which exactly 
fitted in its place. He did not 
strive for epigrams of the showy 
kind, but in some paragraphs 
almost every sentence seems 
worthy of being quoted by itself. 
This one defect of Emerson's 
style — his scrappiness — is less 
serious because of his theme. The repetition and reapplica- 
tion of one fundamental idea — the idea that each man has 
within himself an element of the divine — itself gives unity 
to his writings. Emerson's Essays should not, however, be 
read as one would read an organized presentation of a system 
of ideas. They are rather to be taken as stimulants of our own 
thoughts. Often they tell little or nothing that we did not 
know before, but they present things in a new light, and put 
us in the way of reaching conclusions for ourselves. Natu- 
rally, those of idealistic tendencies will gain most from the 




Emerson as a young man. 






THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 139 

combination of the two elements of the Puritan character, 
the ideal and the practical. Though he was the leader of a 
group of men who were often looked on as mystical dreamers, 
and was himself perhaps the greatest idealist of them all, he 
was nevertheless a sound, sensible, unassuming man. In 
college, though not a leader, he seems to have had some 
share in student life, and was known as an author of little 
squibs in verse and of what his biographer calls " songs for 
festive occasions." In later life, while always reserved, he met 
men of all sorts pleasantly. At literary dinners in Boston 
and on similar occasions he said little, but was always a gra- 
cious and appreciative listener. On the camping trips of the 
Adirondack Club, 1 which included several other men of 
letters, he was always a little apart, yet never in a way that 
made his presence seem awkward or out of place. To his 
farmer neighbors at Concord he appeared quite one of 
themselves, and many of them probably never realized his 
importance in the eyes of the world. 2 

It was Emerson's prose rather than his poems that first 
won him followers, but his poems have gradually come to be 
widely appreciated. Many of the latter present, in more 
imaginative form, the same ideas that are found in the Essays. 

1 It caused a little surprise when Emerson bought a gun to take 
on one of these expeditions, and Longfellow timidly refused to join 
the party, saying "Some one will be shot." But the philosopher 
confined himself to practicing at a mark, and "never shot at any 
living thing" — intentionally or unintentionally. 

2 After Emerson's death a farmer whose land joined his said in a 
manner that implied he was offering the highest possible tribute, 
"Mr. Emerson was a good neighbor ; he always kept his fences up." 
Emerson always attended town meetings, and took his full share 
in the consideration of local problems. There are some conflicting 
stories as to his dexterity in doing manual labor, and his skill in 
managing business transactions. Every one likes to represent a 
philosopher as impractical, and all his awkwardnesses are usually 
remembered. 



140 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Emerson never fully mastered the technique of verse, 
and it is easy to point out rough lines and bad rhymes, 
but in poetry as in prose he sometimes struck out short 
passages that seem as inevitable as the hills. The charge of 
obscurity, which is brought against his poems, really holds 
for only a few of them, like " The Sphinx " and " Brahma," 

and not for these if the 
reader is familiar with Emer- 
son's philosophical ideas. 
On the whole, his best poetry 
is found in the shorter poems 
and fragments. Of the 
longer poems, " May-Day," 
and " Woodnotes " contain 
exquisite bits, but viewed as 
wholes seem even -more dis- 
organized than the Essays. 
" Threnody," an appealingly 
heartfelt poem on the death 
of his child, is variously 
rated, but to many readers 
it seems too personal and 
intense in its grief to be the 
highest poetry. 

In estimating Emerson's 
rank in American literature it should be remembered that 
no one now living can quite realize how much his message 
meant to young Americans of his own time. Even those 
who have never read a line of his writings have received 
much of his teachings through sermons, and essays by other 
writers, and in many indirect ways, and his own works there- 
fore seem less novel and tonic than they did when they first 
appeared. For this reason it may be that as years go by his 




Emerson's grave in Sleepy Hollow 
cemetery, Concord. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 141 

prose will be less read; but whether this is true or not he 
must be remembered as the man who best illustrated New 
England idealism guided by New England common sense, 
and as the most inspiring ethical teacher that America has 
yet produced. 

The Lesser Transcendentalists. — Many New England 
Transcendentalists besides Emerson wrote, and a few are 
important enough to be noticed here. 1 The new ideas were 
especially attractive to men with new theories of reform, 2 
and as few of these had Emerson's saving common sense, 
they often said and did strange things. Their oddities were 
reported and exaggerated until the word " Transcendental- 
ist " was sometimes almost a term of ridicule. As a group, 
however, the lesser Transcendentalists, like their leader, were 
well worthy of respect. 

Henry David Thoreau was one of the men whose pecul- 
iarities were magnified and misunderstood. Born at Con- 
cord in 1817, he earned his way through Harvard College, and 
afterward read, wrote, and explored the woods, as the spirit 
moved him. He became acquainted with Emerson after the 

1 Among those who must be passed by without comment in this 
brief history are George Ripley, preacher, founder of Brook Farm, 
and literary critic ; Theodore Parker and James Freeman Clarke, 
preachers and reformers ; Orestes A. Brownson, editor and essayist ; 
and Christopher P. Cranch, Jones Very, and William Ellery Chan- 
ning (2d), poets. 

2 The Transcendentalists denied that one man had any authority 
over another in matters of belief, and held that every individual 
could find the surest revelation of truth within himself. When, 
therefore, a reformer looked within his own heart and thought he 
found the message that it was sinful to drive horses, or to eat po- 
tatoes, or to kill cankerworms, no true Transeendentalist could 
consistently argue with him. Unfortunately, these cranks were 
only half-way Transcendentalists. They were indignant if any one 
questioned their perceptions of truth, but they were always trying 
to impress their ideas on others. 



142 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

latter removed to Concord, and for two or three years he 
lived in Emerson's household, making himself generally 




Henry D. Thoreau. 



useful as a younger brother might do. A little later he built 
a hut on VValden pond, near Concord, on a tract of land owned 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 143 

by Emerson, and here he lived alone for two or three years 
more. The matter-of-fact residents of Concord were unable 
to understand a college graduate who adopted no profession, 
and who, when he needed money for his few simple wants, 
was content to get it by odd jobs, such as whitewashing for 
the neighbors. Thoreau, who was not without a sense of 
humor, was amused at the interest which curious persons 
showed in his affairs, and apparently indulged in some odd 
freaks merely to mystify them. He was neither idle nor 
lazy, but he had no one dependent on him, his own wants 
were few, and he preferred to develop himself and to conduct 
his life in his own way. 1 While his course was not one that 
many men could imitate if they would, there was really 
nothing mysterious about it. 

Thoreau was an omnivorous student, and he read all sorts 
of things, from the Greek poets to the most out-of-the-way 
local authors. But he was even more notable as an observer 
of nature than as a reader, and nature furnished the inspira- 
tion for many of his best writings. During his lifetime he 
published a few magazine articles and two books, A Week 
on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, and Waklen, or Life in 
the Woods. Since his death in 1862 his magazine articles 
and his unpublished manuscripts have been gathered into 

1 The Walden experiment has been most talked about and most 
misunderstood. It was really a sort of prolonged camping-out. 
Most persons are obliged to content themselves with a short camp- 
ing time in the summer, but more than one lover of nature has 
wished that he might extend the experience through the year. 
Thoreau did this, and at the same time made some little experiments 
to see how simply and cheaply he could live. He was by nature 
rather solitary, though not abnormally so. While he lived at Wal- 
den, he went to Concord almost daily, and enjoyed visiting and 
receiving visits from his friends. It was only the strangers who 
peered around his cottage and regarded him as a curiosity that he 
found annoying. 



144 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



several volumes. 1 In his own day he was not regarded very 
highly, but he has had the experience, rare for an American 
author, of growing steadily in esteem since his death, until 
he now takes unquestioned rank as the second of the Tran- 
scendental writers. When at his best he is a master of prose. 
This best is usually found in passages that record his delicate, 
accurate, and sympathetic observation of nature, and that 
show his power of finding the interesting elements in common 




Walden Pond. 



The heap of stones marks the site of 
Thoreau's hut. 



things. His great literary defect was the occasional use of 
startling expressions that are out of place and in poor taste. 
These are sometimes found in the descriptions of nature, but 
more often in the passages of moralizing and philosophizing 
that are common in his writings. It is in these passages that 
his transcendental ideas are expressed, and as he lacked 
Emerson's sanity and sureness of taste, he sometimes shows 
to disadvantage. His verses have their special admirers, but 
are on the whole of little value in comparison to his prose. 
Like all uneven writers Thoreau may be ranked high or low 

1 The titles given to some of the more important of these are, 
Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



145 



according as the critic is most impressed by his finer pas- 
sages or by the occasional cheapness and exaggeration of 
statement. Many readers find a wonderful charm in his 




Margaret Fuller. 

treatment of nature, and take more enjoyment in his work 
than in that of other men who, according to strict rules of 
criticism, must be confessed his superiors. 

Margaret Fuller, teacher, essayist, editor, and the most 
famous " blue-stocking " of her time, exerted such influence 



146 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



in her day that she must be mentioned here, though her 
works are now little read. In the Dial and elsewhere she 
discussed questions of literature and art from a Transcenden- 
tal viewpoint, and was much interested in the Germans, 
particularly in Goethe, some of whose works she translated. 
I She was also one of the first American women to plead for 

wider opportunities for her sex. 
While in Europe just before her 
death, she became greatly inter- 
ested in the movement for Ital- 
ian independence, and she married 
an Italian, the Marquis d'Ossoli. 
In library catalogues and bio- 
graphical lists she frequently ap- 
pears as Madame Ossoli, though 
all her writings were first pub- 
lished under her maiden name. 1 
The oblivion that has overtaken 
her works is due in part to the 
fact that the world has outgrown 
her views, in part to a lack of vital 
quality in her prose style. 
One of the most peculiar of the Transcendentalists was 
Amos Bronson Alcott. During his long life he proposed 
various reforms in education, advocated a number of erratic 

1 "Margaret," as she was very generally called, appears fre- 
quently in the literary gossip and memoirs of the time. Emerson, 
who knew her well, admired her, though she sometimes amused 
him. Lowell execrates her both privately and in the Fable for 
Critics. Amusing passages in Hawthorne's Note-Books show that 
she was one of his pet aversions. She seems to have had a peculiar 
egotism, and an amazing lack of tact, so that she irritated those who 
knew her slightly. On her intimates, and on a wide circle of readers 
who did not know her personally, she made a strong and a favorable 
impression. 




Amos Bronson Alcott. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 147 

theories of conduct, founded the Concord School of Phi- 
losophy, and wrote much in prose and verse. He was the 
friend of Emerson and of other Transcendentalists, who 
esteemed him, though they agreed in saying that he talked 
better than he wrote. It is to be feared that he is now re- 
membered chiefly as an awful example of the oddities of 
Transcendentalism. His " Orphic Sayings," a series of not 
very intelligible observations published in the Dial, attracted 
much attention, and called forth much ridicule from the un- 
sympathetic. 1 

The New England Abolitionists 

The Movement against Slavery. — The awakening of 
New England inspired men of an active and practical turn of 
mind to attack definite social evils, as it inspired those of a 
more philosophical temperament to become Transcenden- 
talists. The reform which at the time seemed most needed 
and to which most of them devoted themselves was the aboli- 
tion of negro slavery. The protest against slavery was not 
new, nor had it been confined to New England. During the 
first two generations of the Republic most Southern as well 
as Northern statesmen had regretted the existence of the 
system, and many of them had expressed the hope that it 
might disappear in the South as it had done in the North. 

1 One of Alcott's most amusing experiments was "The New 
Eden," Fruitlands, which he attempted to found because the spirit 
at Brook Farm seemed too sordid. At Fruitlands all labor was to 
be done by hand, since it was wrong to enslave animals ; all insects 
were to be unmolested, since they had a right to what was necessary 
for their existence ; no vegetables which grew underground were 
to be eaten, since only those which "aspired" were worthy to be 
the food of man; etc. Alcott's eldest daughter, Louisa M., has 
recorded in some of her stories the experiences of a Transcendentalist 
household. 



H8 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Antislavery organizations were strong at the South, 
where the members saw both the desirability and the diffi- 
culties of emancipation. The subsequent bitter antagonism 
between North and South, which forced both sections to 
support extreme views, was brought about by complex causes, 
many of them economic and political. The only one which con- 
cerns us here is the crusade inaugurated by those who were 
so impressed by the moral evils of slavery that they refused 
to consider practical difficulties and questions of expediency. 
The majority of these were, naturally enough, descendants 
of the early New Englanders. At first they were regarded 
as fanatics, and were fully as unpopular among their neigh- 
bors as in the South. Among those who wrote and spoke 
most effectively were William Lloyd Garrison, editor 
and pamphleteer; Wendell Phillips, orator; John 
Greenleaf Whittier, poet; James Russell Lowell, poet, 
satirist, and essayist; and Harriet Beecher Stowe, novel- 
ist. Other writers, including many who are discussed in 
other sections of this chapter, were interested in the move- 
ment, but those just mentioned gave so much of time and 
energy to the cause that they fairly constitute a group by 
themselves. 

Garrison and Phillips. — William Lloyd Garrison and 
Wendell Phillips held far higher rank as leaders of the 
antislavery movement than as men of letters. Garrison, 
who conducted the IAberator, an abolitionist journal in Boston, 
from 1831 ! until the slaves were freed, was a representative 

1 The sudden change in the intensity of feeling as the slavery 
question became a sectional issue is indicated by the fact that just 
before the founding of the Liberator, Garrison was connected with 
the Genius of Universal Emancipation, which had for some years 
been published unmolested by a Quaker reformer at Baltimore. 
Though Garrison's radical utterances finally led to his arrest, he 
suffered no serious popular violence. A few years later his life would 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



149 



of the humbler and poorer classes, and had received most of 
his intellectual training in the offices of country newspapers. 
He was a man of great personal and moral courage, and of 
infinite perseverance, and his heroic attacks for thirty-five 
years tortured the popular conscience until in the end they 
compelled action. 
They were well writ- 
ten for their imme- 
diate purpose, but 
they have no literary 
qualities that should 
keep them alive after 
their work is done. 
Wendell Phillips 
was in many ways a 
direct antithesis to 
Garrison. He came 
of a well-to-do and 
aristocratic New Eng- 
land family, and he 
gave up both social 
position and the 
promise of success in 
his profession to ally 
himself with a move- 




William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell 
Phillips. 



ment that was scorned by all his former associates. He re- 
mained steadfast to the cause, however, until emancipation 
was secured. Although not the most logical, he was probably 
the most moving of the antislavery orators. The reader 



not have been safe in any Southern city ; no emancipation paper 
would have been permitted in the South ; and on the other hand, 
in Northern cities mobs, sometimes headed by clergymen, were 
organized to prevent officers from returning fugitive slaves. 



150 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

finds his speeches clear and sometimes impassioned, but 
much of their power must have been due to his handsome 
presence and his fine delivery. 

John Greenleaf Whittier. — Whittier, the chief poet of 
the antislavery movement, differed from the other greater 
New England men of letters in being descended neither from 
the Puritans nor from the intellectual aristocracy. His 
ancestors were plain Quaker farmers, who had occupied the 
same farm at Haverhill, Massachusetts, since 1647. He was 
born in 1807, and had the usual experiences of a farmer's boy 



v i> ti y.- jmmwEj^®ik* 



Heading of Garrison's Liberator. 

in a family that was none too well-to-do, experiences the 
pleasanter features of which are reflected in " The Barefoot 
Boy," " Snow-Bound," and other poems. But there were 
less happy aspects of the life, and to the hard work and per- 
haps to ignorant disregard of hygienic laws Whittier owed the 
poor health from which he always suffered. At the age of 
fourteen he began to write verses, inspired, it is said, by 
meeting with Burns's poems. At this time Garrison was 
editing a country paper in the vicinity, and when one of these 
early poems was sent to him, he at once took an interest in 
the young author. It was partly as a result of Garrison's 
pleading that Whittier was permitted by his father to spend 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



151 



two winters at the Haverhill academy. 1 Afterward Garri- 
son secured for him an editorial position in Boston, and for 
the next five years he edited various papers and spent some 




Whittier's birthplace. 

time on the farm. Ill-health interfered with all his activi- 
ties, and in 1836 the old homestead was sold, and he removed 

1 The New England academy of that day corresponded as nearly 
as may be to the high school of the present, though its students 
were usually not so well prepared, or rather, not prepared in so many 
subjects, as are those who enter high school now. At Haverhill 
Whittier studied English literature and French. He earned his own 
expenses for these two terms, part of them by making slippers in 
the evenings after the farm work was done. It is recorded that 
before beginning one term he made an estimate and found that he 
had enough money to pay all his expenses, and twenty-five cents 
more. He completed the term with all debts paid — and had the 
twenty-five cents left. This is not so admirable an achievement as 
writing "Snow-Bound," but to some of us it seems almost as re- 
markable. 



152 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

to the neighboring village of Amesbnry. Here he continued 
to reside until his death in 1892. ! From the publication of 
his first antislavery pamphlet, " Justice and Expediency," in 
1833, until the war he worked consistently for the abolition 
movement. He wrote much in prose and verse, edited aboli- 
tionist papers for brief intervals, attended conventions, 
served on committees, and did everything that his health 
and circumstances permitted. After the slave was freed, 
he became interested in other reforms, and he gave more time 
to nonpolitical verse. 

The Quakers, who in matters of conduct were even stricter 
than the Puritans, were as a class opposed to slavery, but it 
was probably through the influence of Garrison that Whittier 
became active in the abolitionist movement. Before this he 
had dabbled in politics a little, and had shown such abilities 
that he was regarded as a coming man who would win a local 
reputation, and perhaps be sent to Congress. At this time, 
however, the abolitionists were so unpopular 2 that when he 
allied himself with them, he deliberately gave up all hope of 
personal advancement. 3 His devotion to the reform also 

1 Those who enjoy the gossipy side of literary biography may 
find in various anecdotes of Whittier, and in several of his poems, 
hints of a romantic reason why he never married. There were also, 
probably, practical reasons. Whittier was devoted to his mother, 
and she was dependent on him for support. She was a strict devotee 
of her sect, and could never have been happy in the household with 
a daughter-in-law who was of another faith. Apparently the women 
who most appealed to Whittier were not Quakeresses ; and with his 
straitened financial circumstances and his poor health it was out 
of the question for him to maintain two domestic establishments. 

2 Whittier had more than one experience with mob violence. 

3 Whittier continued, however, to use his political talents in be- 
half of the new movement. The abolitionists soon divided into 
two parties. The stricter group, led by Garrison, refused to vote or 
take any part in a government that recognized slavery. More 
practical men, like Whittier, felt that half a loaf was better than no 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



153 



had a serious influence on his poetry. In early youth he had 
written somewhat in the manner of Byron and Scott, and had 
been especially influenced by Scott's narrative poems. The 
twelve volumes of verse issued between 1837 and 1865, 
though they contain much miscellaneous work, are largely 
made up of poems on slavery. The fact that there were 
twelve of these volumes also hints at one important result 
of his connection with a reform. He was led to write large 
numbers of what have been termed 
"editorials in verse" — poems 
called forth by particular occur- 
rences, and intended to produce 
their effects while these occur- 
rences were fresh in the public 
mind. He thus formed the habit 
of writing too much and too rap- 
idly, and of publishing without tak- 
ing time for revision. After the 
slaves were freed, he could not 
change the literary habits of years, 
though he wrote more on general 
subjects. To the period after the 

war belong "Snow-Bound," " The Tent on the Beach," " In 
School-Days," and others of his best known poems. 

Whittierhad the limitations natural to a Quaker and a New 
Englander of the humbler class. He was relatively untrained 
in books. He never traveled, and although he was an hon- 
ored friend of the other New England men of letters, and was 
always welcome in the social and literary circles of Boston, 
he lived largely among men of the class in which he was born. 

bread. Whittier labored with politicians of both parties, secured 
letters and pledges from candidates for office, and tried to swing the 
antislavery support to those who for the time being promised most. 




John Greenleaf Whittier. 



154 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

He never attended a theater, he cared little for music, and he 
knew little of the other arts. Moreover he gave thirty of the 
best years of his life to an unpopular reform, and in doing so 
acquired habits of writing that were not favorable to his 
highest artistic development. But, as a result of his early 
life and training, he knew and enjoyed nature. He under- 
stood men, more especially those of the simple, earnest sort 
with which he lived. He had the knack of story-telling which 
often belongs to men of his class. Above all, he had a strong, 
well-balanced personality — practical common sense, tact 
for influencing men, charity for others, uncompromising 
devotion to the truth. These limitations and excellences of 
the man are all reflected with the greatest clearness in his 
poems. 

Most of Whittier's antislavery poems have now lost much 
of their interest. Still, they are among the best of the 
thousands of verses that the great struggle called forth. 
They were intense, as they must have been to arouse public 
sentiment, but they are never vindictive or bitterly personal. 
His restraint, and his habit of viewing the misdeeds of others 
rather in sorrow than in anger, are shown in " Ichabod," his 
wonderful lines on what seemed to him Webster's abandon- 
ment of a just cause. Occasionally he pictured the suffer- 
ings of the slave, as in the " Hunters of Men," but in general 
he tried less frequently than most antislavery poets to harrow 
the feelings of his readers. When he aroused sympathy for 
the slave, it was by showing the injustice of slavery. That he 
was, however, capable of indignation is shown by poems, like 
" Massachusetts to Virginia," which still stir the reader 
though the circumstances that called them forth disappeared 
two generations ago. 

The most popular and on the whole the best of Whittier's 
work is found in his shorter narrative and descriptive poems, 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 155 

and those in which he portrays, often with an element of 
personal reminiscence, the simple life of rural New England. 
The long narrative poems of his early years were unsuccess- 
ful, but he managed the ballad and the short narrative ad- 
mirably — telling his story simply, as in " Maud Muller," 
"In School Days," and "Telling the Bees," or with dramatic 
development, as in " Skipper Ireson's Ride." The " Tent on 
the Beach " follows the old plan of having each member of a 
party tell a story; and while the sections are uneven in qual- 
ity, some of them are excellently done. 1 The descriptive ele- 
ment in the ballads is often as effective as the action, 2 and 
in another group of poems is even more important. " Snow- 
Bound," the best of the latter group, is an American classic, 
partly because of the vividness and accuracy of the descrip- 
tions, partly because of the simplicity and the moral sweet- 
ness that pervade the poem. It has artistic defects — crudi- 
ties of verse and passages of commonplace moralizing — but 
only the carping critic is troubled by these. The poet has 
brought out the finer characteristics of a life that on the sur- 
face must have been trying enough to mind and body, and 
one leaves the poem with a full appreciation of the dignity 
and independence which the simple but vigorous New Eng- 
land farm life produced. Whittier was naturally fond of 
New England subjects, and besides the rural life that he knew 
from experience he wrote on the Indians and the early per- 
secution of the witches and the Quakers. 3 

1 Whittier represents a camping party of three persons. He does 
not give their names, but they are readily recognizable as James T. 
Fields, the publisher and essayist, Bayard Taylor, and the poet 
himself. 

2 See, for example, the vivid pictures in "Telling the Bees," and 
in "Skipper Ireson's Ride." The student should find many other 
similar passages. 

3 See, for example, "Cassandra Southwick," "Mabel Martin," 
"In the 'Old South,'" "The King's Missive." 



156 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Whittier wrote a number of poems on religious subjects 
which are, technically speaking, not among his best, but 
which express the aspirations of the heart so earnestly and 
naturally that they have been adopted into the hymn books 
of most Protestant denominations. 1 He also wrote, in his 
later years especially, some " Songs of labor and reform," 
in which he honored various crafts and gave his support to 
various social movements. His prose, which occupies three 
volumes of his collected works, is good, but would hardly be 
remembered if it were not for his reputation -as a poet. The 
best pieces are " Margaret Smith's Journal," a fictitious diary 
of a young woman in colonial New England, and a few short 
personal essays. 

It has sometimes been said that Whittier was the most 
representative poet of nineteenth-century New England, and 
much might be written in support of this claim. He was 
not the most cultured, or the widest in range, or the most 
perfect in literary workmanship, but he showed at least as 
well as any man the New England uprightness, independ- 
ence, idealism, and courage in attacking wrong, while his 
defects and limitations were themselves the product of New 
England life. 

James Russell Lowell. — Lowell was another writer who 
sacrificed much and gave many of his best energies for the 
unpopular abolition movement. He never devoted himself 
quite so completely to the cause as did Whittier, and since 
he was twelve years younger the Emancipation Proclamation 
came at an earlier period of his life. Still, he fairly deserves 
to be classed in the anti-slavery group. 

Lowell's family was one of distinction in New England. 2 

1 Many hymns have been made by choosing stanzas from the 
two poems, "The Eternal Goodness," and "Our Master." 

2 The poet's family has numbered among its members the founder 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 157 

His father was pastor of a church in Boston, but lived in 
the family home, Elmwood, on the outskirts of Cambridge. 




James Russell Lowell. 



Here James Russell was born in 1819. The boy grew up in 
the delightful social and literary atmosphere of the college 

of Lowell, Massachusetts, the founder of the Lowell Institute, 
Boston, and the present president of Harvard College. 



158 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



town, and early acquired habits of reading, and literary 
tastes. He entered Harvard, where he was a popular, happy- 
go-lucky student, who did excellently well the things that 
interested him, but who neglected unpleasant duties to such 
an extent that he was rusticated in his senior year. 1 He 

received his degree, however, 
and after hesitating over other 
professions took up the study 
of the law and was graduated 
from Harvard law school. He 
practiced his profession a little, 
but without enthusiasm. Even 
while he kept his law office 
open, he devoted himself largely 
to literature, and he founded a 
short-lived magazine, the Pio- 
neer. He had become engaged 
to Maria White, the sister of a 
college friend, 2 a young woman 
of great strength and sweetness 
of character, and in 1844 he was married. His early poems 
had nothing to do with slavery, but, largely through the in- 

1 Rustication consisted in placing a student in the charge of some 
country clergyman, in whose family he boarded, and who acted as 
tutor and saw that he spent his time in approved fashion. The 
punishment naturally disappeared with the development of special- 
ization and the elective system. It would now be hard to find a 
country minister who would undertake to give a college senior ade- 
quate instruction in all his studies. 

2 Russell Lowell and Maria White were the most popular mem- 
bers of a group of young people from the most cultured families of 
Boston and vicinity, mostly Harvard graduates and their sisters. 
It is said that after they became engaged they were accustomed to 
pass their letters about among their friends that others might enjoy 
their happiness. The fact is an interesting reminder of the idyllic 
conditions in which Lowell's youth was spent. 




Lowell at 31 . 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 159 

fluence of Miss White, he became an ardent abolitionist. 
He was a regular contributor of both prose and verse to the 
Anti-Slavery Standard, and at the time of the Mexican War 
he began his political satire, the Biglow Papers. In 1848 — 
a convenient year to remember in Lowell's life — the first 
series of Biglow Papers was issued in book form, and also 
the Fable for Critics, the Vision of Sir Launfal, and an- 
other volume of poems. Mrs. Lowell died in 1853. The 
husband commemorated her loss, and that of three chil- 
dren who died before their mother, in several of his finest 
poems. 1 In 1856 Lowell succeeded Longfellow as Smith 
Professor of modern languages and literature at Harvard 
College. The next year he was married to Miss Frances 
Dunlap. From 1857 to 1861 he was editor of the newly 
founded Atlantic Monthly, and was chiefly responsible for 
the preeminent position which that magazine long oc- 
cupied. From 1863 to 1872 he was one of the editors of the 
North American Review. He wrote many essays for both 
these periodicals — before and during the war largely on 
political matters, afterward mostly on literature. The sec- 
ond series of the Biglow Papers was published in the Atlan- 
tic from 1862 to 1866. From 1877 to 1880 he was United 
States minister to Spain, and from 1880 to 1885 minister 
to England. In the latter position, especially, he distin- 
guished himself by his geniality, his wit, and his success as an 
occasional speaker, and did much to improve the feeling be- 
tween the intellectual classes of England and of America — 
a feeling which since the Civil War had been a little strained. 
He died at the family home, Elmwood, in 1891. 

The reader who would estimate Lowell's works rightly 
must be familiar with the facts of his life, and must under- 

1 See "She Came and Went," "After the Burial," "The Change- 
ling," "Auf Wiedersehen," and the "Palinode," etc. 



160 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

stand his personality. In his case, more than that of almost 
any other American writer, the works are the expression of 
the man — the expression not merely of his general charac- 
teristics, but of his moods and circumstances. As a young 
man he was fascinating, witty, versatile, the favorite and the 
chief contributor of fun and entertainment at every gathering 
of his friends. As the hardships * and sorrows of life came 
upon him, he became more subdued, but he was always the 
same kindly, humorous man, showing with perfect openness 
his every mood. Indeed, his frankness was always remark- 
able, and he was ready to reveal his inmost heart to those 
with whom he felt in sympathy. As a teacher he was more 
enthusiastic than scientific, and he made work traditionally 
easy for the lazy student, though he gave much to those who 
wished to learn. His simplicity and his individuality were 
so marked that to many it seemed strange that he should 
have a place in court and diplomatic circles, yet it was just 
these qualities that made him admired in England as at home. 
Lowell's work may be considered under three heads — the 
poems, the Biglow Papers, and the prose essays. As a young 
man Lowell believed in his own future as a poet, and put his 
best into, his verse. There are admirable qualities in this 
early work, but it is imitative of other poets, and it does not 
long sustain the same tone. The best poems written before 
1848 were those which deal with the author's personal affec- 
tions and griefs, like " The Changeling," " She Came and 
Went " ; " The Present Crisis," which belongs with the anti- 
slavery work; and the poems of nature appreciation and de- 

1 While Lowell never really suffered from poverty, he was obliged 
in the first years of his married life to exemplify strictly the formula 
"Plain living and high thinking." It is said that the first Lowell 
baby was rocked in a cradle made from a common barrel split length- 
wise ; but Mrs. Lowell had painted on one barrel head the family 
crest, and on the other a Latin motto. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 161 

scription, such as " To a Pine-Tree," and " Beaver Brook." 
The two long poems which appeared in 1848 differ widely 
from each other in every respect. The Fable for Critics, first 
published anonymously, shows Lowell's inveterate habit of 
joking, which was well known to his friends, but which, up 
to this time, he had not allowed to manifest itself in his pub- 
lished verse. There is really a " fable " of Apollo and a 
critic, but it is so overlaid with puns and digressions that 
few readers concern themselves with it. The best part of 
the poem is found in the short comments on contemporary 
writers. The criticisms of Emerson, Hawthorne, and others 
seem sound to-day, though in some cases Lowell was judging 
the authors only from their early work. 1 The J'ision of Sir 
Launfal is one of the most popular of Lowell's poems, though 
taken as a whole it is hardly his best. It illustrates the 
New England fondness for sentimental moralizing, and also, 
in its history, the influence of the " inspiration " theory of 
poetry. It is said to have been written in forty -eight hours 
and its defects are such as might have been removed by 
careful revision. 2 The best parts are the descriptive passages. 

1 Lowell's criticism of himself follows. The most important of 
his "isms" was, of course, abolitionism. 

"There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb 
With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme, 
He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders, 
But he can't with that bundle he has on his shoulders, 
The top of the hill he will ne'er come nigh reaching 
Till he learns the distinction 'twixt singing and preaching; 
His lyre has some chords that would ring pretty well, 
But he'd rather by half make a drum of the shell, 
And rattle away till he's old as Methusalem, 
At the head of a march to the last new Jerusalem." 

2 The division of the poem into sections is misleading, so that 
many readers think that Sir Launfal really went on his pilgrimage, 
whereas he only dreamed of it. There are also prosaic lines, such as 

"The flush of life may well be seen," 

M 



162 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Lowell's later poems are less obviously imitative than his 
early work, yet he never evolved a poetic manner that was 
really his own. The " Harvard Commemoration Ode," 
which many admirers consider his masterpiece, was read 
in 1865 at the services held in honor of the sons of Harvard 
who died in the Civil War. In this, as in his poem on the 
death of Agassiz, and many others, are passages that are fine 
both in thought and in music. There were poems on nature 
in these later years, less exuberant, but fully as heartfelt 
as those of the earlier time. There were also a number of 
very brief, almost epigrammatic poems, such as " Monna 
Lisa," which are as perfect in form as anything that Lowell 
wrote, though they are hardly so natural or so representative 
of the man as the better passages of the longer poems. 

The first series of the Biglow Papers was begun as a pro- 
test against the Mexican War. Like many other Northerners, 
Lowell felt that the war was being urged by the slave interests 
for their own ends, and he realized that the surest way to 
oppose it without appearing unpatriotic or cowardly was by 
ridicule. He therefore contributed, first to the Boston 
Courier, and afterward to the Anti-Slavery Standard, a series 
of poems in Yankee dialect which were supposed to be written 

and "For other couriers we should not lack," 

which are the more noticeable because they occur in passages of the 
finest poetry ; and some of the figures of speech are extravagant 
and absurd. But it seems ungracious to point out the blemishes 
of work which, with a little more pains on the part of the author, 
might have been so fine. Popular taste has chosen the description 
beginning 

"And what is so rare as a day in June?" 

for highest approval, and this is perhaps the best sustained passage, 
but bits in other sections of the poem are at least as good. The 
student should find these for himself. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 163 

by one Hosea Biglow, and sent to the editor by his father. 
The imaginary author was represented as a typical New 
England farmer, a young man without education, but with 
the Yankee wit, morals, and independence. Hosea's utter- 
ances, though in dialect and full of Yankee humor, 1 are at 
bottom earnest arguments against the war and its supporters. 
Another character, Birdofreedom Sawin, a thoughtless and 
unprincipled adventurer who enlists in the army and writes 
letters telling of his experiences in Mexico, is treated in a 
spirit of broad burlesque. When the papers were gathered 
together in 1848, Lowell created a third character, the 
Reverend Homer Wilbur, a tiresome old clergyman, who is 
supposed to edit the papers and to introduce his own obser- 
vations on all sorts of things. He also wrote a burlesque 
preface, and the " Notices of an Independent Press," sup- 
posed comments of newspapers, which are really ironical 
parodies on the book reviews of the time. 2 This added 

1 Lowell was always interested in original forms of speech, and 
particularly in the dialect that he heard from the country people 
when a boy. He probably chose this form of expression for Hosea, 
however, because it gave a humorous effect, and because it enabled 
him to say without offense many things that he could not have said 
in another fashion. Take, for example, a stanza from the first 
number : 

"Ez fer war, I call it murder, — 

There you hev it plain an' flat ; 
I don't want to go no furder 

Than my Testyment fer that. 
God hez sed so plump an' fairly, 

It's ez long ez it is broad, 
An' you've gut to git up airly 

Ef j^ou want to take in God." 

The reader excuses this when it purports to come from an uncul- 
tured countryman. If Lowell had mended the spelling of the 
stanza and published it as his own, it would have seemed vulgar and 
irreverent. 

2 "The Courtin'," Lowell's one important nonpolitical poem in 



164 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



material is amusing, though there is rather too much of it, 
but it tends to make the reader forget the political purpose 
of the author, and would have been out of place in the orig- 
inal newspaper publication. The verses of Hosea Biglow 
appealed to all classes of voters, from the most highly edu- 

















^^Sk^k 


























* 








""■""'~ 


"1 


l,f? 








ins if 










■ '' 




vflj 













EIniwood, Lowell's home in Cambridge. 

cated man to the laborer in the streets. The satire in Homer 
Wilbur's pedantic essays could be fully appreciated only by 
the more intellectual classes. 

The second series of the Bic/Iow Papers, written nearly 
twenty years after the first, during the Civil War, and dealing 
with contemporary events, is on the same plan and has the 
same characters. It is less rollicking in its enthusiasm, 
the dialect poems have touches of pathos as well as of humor, 

dialect, was included in this introductory material. A later version, 
with nearly twice as many stanzas, is found in the Introduction to 
the Second Series. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 165 

and they are evidently the more careful work of a mature man 
of letters. Critics differ as to which series is the better, but 
the Papers as a whole easily take rank as the greatest Ameri- 
can political satire. 

The prose which Lowell chose for preservation in his col- 
lected works includes one volume of political essays and 
several volumes of essays on literary and miscellaneous 
subjects. The papers included in the volume of political 
essays are but a very small part of the political prose which 
he contributed to newspapers and magazines, but they are 
representative of his best work of this sort. They show 
his patriotism and thorough Americanism, his fairness to 
opponents, and his habit of appealing to high motives, 
rather than to expediency; but since their literary qualities 
are those of the other essays they need not be discussed 
in detail. 

The greater number of the literary essays were written 
after the close of the war. 1 Lowell was at his best in th£ dis- 
cussion of the masters — Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, 
Milton. Notwithstanding the excellence of his characteriza- 
tions in the Fable for Critics, his few essays on contemporary 
writers were relatively unsuccessful. This may be due in 
part to his habits of study and writing. In youth he formed 
the practice of reading and rereading the greater works of 
literature, and of noting on margins and fly-leaves the impres- 
sions, criticisms, and comparisons that came into his mind 
at each perusal. When he came, relatively late in life, to 

1 Many of these were first published in the Atlantic Monthly and 
the North American Review, and were collected into the volumes 
called by his publishers Among my Books (1870, second series 1876), 
and My Study Windows (1871). As early as 1845 Lowell had 
issued a volume of Conversations on Some of the Old Poets. Latest 
Literary Essays and Addresses was almost ready for the printer at 
the time of his death. 



166 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

write essays on these works, he had a rich mass of material 
at hand. The inclusion of comments made years apart and 
in different moods sometimes interfered a little with the unity 
and consistency of the essays, but it added greatly to their 
suggestiveness and human interest. Lowell's essays are, 
indeed, the personal comments of a delightful, whimsical, 
sympathetic man. Other essays are better for the beginner 
in search of biographical information and systematic critical 
analysis, but to the student who already knows the author 
under discussion, Lowell's rambling treatment is wonderfully 
stimulating. 

Some of the earlier miscellaneous essays are contained in 
the volume of Fireside Travels (1864), and a few others are 
included in the later collections. The best are the shorter 
personal papers, such as "Cambridge Thirty Years Ago," 
reminiscent of the author's boyhood days, and " My Garden 
Acquaintance," a delightfully informal nature essay. After 
his death Lowell's letters were collected and edited by his 
friend, Charles Eliot Norton. No American, perhaps, has 
been a more charming letter writer, and for one who would 
really know Lowell this collection is the best introduction 
to his life and work. 

The reader of Lowell finds certain peculiarities in both the 
verse and the prose which result, as has been said, from his 
pleasingly whimsical personality. In the work which is in- 
tentionally humorous he never seems to know when to stop. 
Often he continues until the effect is weakened, not because 
the jokes are bad, but because there are too many of them. 
More serious is the fact that throughout life, but especially 
in his early and middle years, he found it hard to keep the 
same tone throughout a poem or an essay. In the most 
earnest treatment of the most serious subjects he will sud- 
denly digress to introduce a clever pun or to turn a striking 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 167 

phrase. 1 This is, fortunately, more rare in the poems than 
in the prose, though when it occurs in the former it is of course 
a greater blemish. The reader who has really come to know 
Lowell through a study of his biography and his letters not 
only excuses but enjoys these peculiarities, as we enjoy any 
distinctive and personal quality in a friendly letter. The cas- 
ual reader is likely to be bewildered by them, and to get the 
erroneous idea that they indicate lack of earnest purpose and 
logical consistency of thought. 

There is no doubt about Lowell's position in American 
literary history. As the first editor and in a sense the creator 
of the Atlantic Monthly, he performed a unique service 
for American letters. As author of the most successful 
American political satire, he had great influence on the thought 
of his time. Later, as teacher and as literary critic, he helped 
to promote the appreciation of classic literature in America. 

1 Lowell punned on a familiar New England phrase and on the 
name of a prominent advocate of secession, Governor Pickens, when 
he entitled one of his most earnest political essays "The Pickens and 
Stealin's Rebellion." In the essay on Milton he says of some com- 
mentator, "He tramples out the last spark of cheerfulness with the 
broad, damp foot of a hippopotamus." In the Fireside Travels 
he writes, "Milton is the only man who has got much poetry out 
of a cataract — and that was a cataract in his eye." Sometimes 
his punning allusions were too far-fetched for any but the learned. 
In one of his critical essays he wrote, "To every commentator who 
has wantonly tampered with the text, or obscured it with his inky 
cloud of paraphrase, we feel inclined to apply the quadrisyllable 
name of the brother of Agis, King of Sparta." It is said to have 
taken his classical colleagues on the Harvard facidty some days of 
research to discover that the name of the Spartan referred to was 
Eudamidas. It is impossible by quoting these sayings to give the 
impression that they produce in the context. The worst — or if 
one has learned to enjoy them, the best — of the matter is that they 
turn up in the most unexpected places. They illustrate the habit 
of Lowell's mind which made his conversation, as a lady visitor once 
said, "like fireworks." 



168 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



While minister to England, he did more than any other man 
has done to continue the work that Irving began of creating 
a better feeling between English and American men of letters. 
As to the permanency of his own writings there is more ques- 
tion. The Biglow Papers seem sure of their place, and the 
Vision of Sir Launfal and a few others promise to be popu- 
lar for a long time 
to come. Of the 
other writings, both 
and verse, it 
safely be said 
they will be 
with profit and 




prose 
may 
that 
read 



pleasure by all who 
have come to know 
and admire the au- 
thor's personality. 

Harriet Beecher 
Stowe. — Mrs. Stowe 
had many associa- 
tions with the Bos- 
ton and Cambridge 
group, though she 
belongs rather to Con- 
necticut than to Mas- 
sachusetts. She was 
born in Connecticut in 1811, the daughter of the Reverend 
Lyman Beecher, a famous clergyman, and the sister of a 
still more famous clergyman, the Reverend Henry Ward 
Beecher. She lived in Boston, then in Cincinnati, where she 
was married to Professor Stowe, later in Brunswick, Maine, 
Andover, Massachusetts, and finally at Hartford, Connect- 
icut. Mrs. Stowe was the author of many works, among 



Mrs. Stowe as a young woman. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



1(39 



UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; 



LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 



HAliKIKT ]:KKiIIl:i; STl'lWE. 



i 



them two stories of New England life, Oldtown Folks, and 
The Minister's 
Wooing, which are 
especially good; 
yet she is always 
remembered in 
connection with one 
book, Uncle Tom's 
Cabin. This was 
written shortly 
after she had re- 
moved from Cin- 
cinnati to Maine, 
and was first pub- 
lished in 1851-1852 
as a serial in a 
Washington paper. 
During her resi- 
dence in Cincin- 
nati Mrs. Stowe 
had seen some- 
thing of slavery 
across the river, 
and she was in- 
clined to do fuller 
justice to the pleas- 
ant aspects of the 

system and to be less bitter in her sectionalism than most 
of the abolitionists. 1 Public feeling had grown so intense, 

1 In Uncle Tom's Cabin the greater number of the slave holders 
are represented as being humane, and as treating their slaves as 
well as circumstances permitted. The most brutal man and the 
woman with the most unreasonable race prejudice are Northerners. 
The author had found that in private conversation friends in the 




BOSTON: 

JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANI. 

CLEVELAND, OHIO: 

JEWm, PROCTOR & WORTHDJ0T0N. 
1852. . 



Title-page- to first edition of 
Cabin. 



Uncle Tom's 



170 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



however, that her book aroused bitter resentment at the 
South, while at the North it was hailed as an effec- 
tive weapon against 
slavery. It had an im- 
mediate success that has 
probably been equaled by 
that of no other American 
novel, and it attracted 
almost as much atten- 
tion abroad as at home. 
At first it was often char- 
acterized as a campaign 
document, and its suc- 
cess was' ascribed to its 
timeliness rather than to 
its literary merit. After 
sixty years it is evident 
that the book has qualities of its own which give it per- 
manency. 1 Technically it has many defects — sensation- 
South admitted and regretted the evils of slavery, and she was 
quite unprepared for the storm of opposition that her book aroused 
at the South. On the contrary, she expected that her abolitionist 
friends would be dissatisfied because her presentation was not 
scathing enough. This undoubtedly shows that she was more 
severe than she realized, but it also indicates the rapidity with which 
North and South were arraying themselves against each other. 
It is quite possible to conceive that most things in Uncle Tom's 
Cabin might have been written a few years earlier by a Southerner, 
and have aroused no particular feeling. 

1 Not only did the story have almost as great a vogue in England 
as in America, but it was translated into many languages, and is 
still one of the American books with which European readers are 
familiar. The melodramatic stage version is usually spoken of with 
a smile, but after all it is one of the things which every one sees. The 
writer has seen billboards bearing the familiar figures of Uncle Tom 
and Little Eva in Oxford and in Rome ; and these characters are 
doubtless now appearing on the stage in even more remote places, 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 173 

ise so impressed one of the trustees of this institution that he 
was at once offered a professorship of modern languages if he 
would go abroad and fit himself for the position. He had 
read much as a boy, and while an undergraduate had pub- 




The Longfellow house at Portland, Maine. 



lished a number of poems in a prominent magazine. He 
studied for three years in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, 
and then returned to his duties in Bowdoin. His teaching 
was so successful that in 1834 he was chosen to the Smith 
professorship at Harvard — the most important professor- 
ship of modern languages in America. He went abroad again 



174 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



to study, devoting himself this time to the languages of north- 
ern Europe, and visiting Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Ger- 
many, and Switzerland. Mrs. Longfellow, to whom he had 
been married at Portland in 1831, died in Holland after a 
short illness. On his return he took up his work at Harvard 
and engaged rooms in the famous Craigie House, 1 at Cam- 
bridge, which has since been associated with his name. In 




Craigie Hous 



Longfellow's home at Cam 
grounds. 



iridge. Side view from the 



1843 he was married to Miss Frances E. Appleton, whom he 
had met in Switzerland shortly after the death of his first 
wife. Miss Appleton's father bought Craigie House as a 
wedding gift, and Longfellow resided there continuously 
until his death in 1882, except for two or three brief visits 
abroad. His geniality and his domestic tastes drew to him a 

1 This fine colonial mansion was once Washington's headquarters 
during the Revolutionary War, and grouped about it are many local 
traditions and associations. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 175 

circle of close friends, which included all the greater New 
England men of letters, as well as others less famous. The 
most important events of these later years were his resigna- 
tion from the Harvard professorship in 1854 1 that he might 
devote himself wholly to literature, and the tragic death of 
Mrs. Longfellow in 1861. 2 

Longfellow's literary career may be divided into three 
periods, of which the first two are relatively unimportant. 
During his undergraduate course at Bowdoin he wrote mostly 
in verse. The state of American poetry was such that his 
juvenile poems attracted much attention when they were 
published, but they are now of value chiefly to the student 
of the author's development. During the second period, 
which covers twelve or fifteen years, from the time when 
he first went abroad until he took up his duties at Harvard, 
he devoted himself mostly to prose. His only important 
work in verse during this time was a translation, from the 
Spanish, of Coplas de Manrique, published in 1833. During 
this period he wrote, besides reviews and articles on literary 
subjects, two longer prose works, Outre-Mer and Hyperion, 
which grew, respectively, out of his first and his second visits 
to Europe. The former shows somewhat the influence of 
Irving. The Sketch Book had been his favorite reading as 
a boy, and the fact that he spent some time in Spain, which 
Irving was just endearing to the public through the Alhambra 
and other works, may have tended to make the resemblance 
stronger. Outre-Mer shows painstaking labor, and contains 
good descriptive passages, but it is a trifle thin and artificial, 

1 His successor, as has already been noted, was James Russell 
Lowell. 

2 Mrs. Longfellow was seated in the library with her children 
when she let fall a drop of burning sealing wax on the light dress 
which she wore. Before the flames could be extinguished she was 
fatally burned. 



176 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

as the imitative work of a young writer is likely to be. Hy- 
perion, published fourteen years later, is entirely different. 
Longfellow gave this work the subtitle of "A Romance," 
and it is really a thinly disguised account of his travels in 
Germany and Switzerland after the death of his first wife, 
and of his meeting with Miss Appleton. When it was first 
published, some critics thought the personal references in 
poor taste, and Miss Appleton and her family are said to 
have been for a time displeased. A more serious fault was 
a turgid style, probably derived in part from the study of 
German romantic tales, and a sentimental and distorted 
view of life which was characteristic of Longfellow only 
during this troubled period, if indeed it was really charac- 
teristic of his best self then. His only other prose work of 
importance was Kavanagh; a romance of New England village 
life, published ten years later, in 1849. 

Soon after his removal to Cambridge, while stirred by his 
recent bereavement, his new love, and the anxieties that 
naturally came from the beginning of new duties, Longfellow 
again turned to verse and wrote a number of short moralizing 
poems. These were published in the volume Voices of the 
Night, 1 in 1839, and were much more favorably received than 
the prose volume of the same year, Hyperion. The return 
to verse in Voices of the Night marks the beginning of the 
author's last and greatest literary period. For the remaining 
forty-three years of his life he was preeminently a poet. 

1 The poems retained from this collection under the heading 
Voices of the Night in later editions of the poems are : the 
"Prelude," "Hymn to the Night," "A Psalm of Life," "The Reaper 
and the Flowers," "The Light of Stars," "Footsteps of Angels," 
"Flowers," "The Beleaguered City," "Midnight Mass forthe Dying 
Year." Almost every one is generally known. At first the author 
called several of these "Psalms," but he retained this title for but 
one, the "Psalm of Life." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



177 



Longfellow wrote prolifically, and only a few of his many 
volumes need be specifically mentioned. Next after Voices 
oj the Night he published Ballads and other Poems (1841), 
the nature of which was probably suggested by his study of 
the old English and German ballads. His Poems on Slavery 
were written on shipboard while he was returning from a 




The Wayside Inn, Sudbury. 

third trip to Europe, and were published in 1842. Evan- 
geline, his first long narrative poem, appeared in 1847, 
Hiawatha in 1855, the Courtship of Miles Standish in 1858, 
the Tales of a Wayside Inn, a collection of stories, 1 in 1863 

1 This embodies, again, the eoneeption of a group of stories told 
by different members of a party. The place was supposed to be 
the old inn at Sudbury, to which parties from Cambridge often made 
excursions. The persons who are represented as telling the tales 
were well-known characters in the social and literary life of Boston 
and Cambridge. 



178 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and 1872. The trilogy of Christus : a Mystery, made up of 
the Divine Tragedy, the Golden Legend, and the New England 
Tragedies, appeared in 1872, though the second part, the 
Golden Legend, had been published separately twenty years 
earlier. 1 A verse translation of Dante, on which the poet 
worked for distraction after the death of his wife, 2 was fin- 
ished in 1867. Michael Angelo, a long poem in dramatic 
form, which he had had in hand for some years, but had not 
finished to his satisfaction, was issued after his death. His 
other volumes contain some dramatic attempts and a large 
number of shorter poems. 

With the publication of Voices of the Night it became evi- 
dent that Longfellow was a poet who could touch the popular 
heart. These short " Psalms " deal with universal human 
emotions and experiences. They are sweet, and hopeful, 
and encouraging. They are written in simple meters and 
with simple imagery that appeals to all. Many of his 
most popular later poems show the same characteristics. 
He was preeminently the poet of childhood, and do- 
mestic- affection, and of the common joys and trials that 
come to the young and to those whose lives have fallen 
in quiet places. He also showed skill in the handling of 
simple narrative. His ballads, and .many of the Tales 
of a Wayside Inn, especially those in which there is 
no strong dramatic element, are effective, and Miles 

1 The three parts of Christus are supposed to show forth respec- 
tively the spirit of the ancient, the medieval, and the modern world. 
The Divine Tragedy is an account of Christ's life and ministry, the 
Golden Legend the retelling of a medieval tale, and the New England 
Tragedies, "John Endicott" and "Giles Corey," are dramas with 
the scene laid in early New England. In some ways Christus is 
the most earnest and ambitious of the poet's works, but the only 
part in which he was fairly successful was the Golden Legend. 

2 It will be remembered that Bryant, when suffering from a 
similar bereavement, translated Homer. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 179 

Standish is excellently done. 1 Evangeline also makes a 
strong appeal to many readers, some of whom rank it as 
his masterpiece, though the story was not an easy one to 
tell. 2 The narrative element in Hiawatha is good, though 
most readers probably remember the separate incidents and 
the description rather than the story as a whole. 3 

Longfellow was a painstaking literary worker. His studies, 
particularly those in the literatures of modern and medieval 
Europe, made him acquainted with many metrical forms, 
and he used a variety of these in his own work. His experi- 
ments with the dactyllic hexameter, the verse of the Iliad and 
the yEneid, in Evangeline and with the unrhymed trochaic 
tetrameter in Hiawatha* in particular, called forth much 
comment, and although the critics point out technical 
objections to the use of both these measures, the voice of 

1 Perhaps Longfellow did especially well with this poem because it 
deals with his own ancestors. Priscilla's answer, and some other 
details, were traditions in the family. 

2 In order to show the heroine's devotion the poet has made her 
continue the search for her lover throughout life, while the lover 
himself becomes disheartened and gives over his attempts to find 
her. It is hard to see how the plot could have been managed better. 
If both lovers had spent their lives in active search, the tale would 
have lost its idyllic character, and have become a story of adventure. 
As it stands now, however, the cynical reader is sometimes tempted 
to ask if Gabriel is worthy of being hunted for. There is an anec- 
dote which relates that the plot was told to Longfellow and Haw- 
thorne at the same time, and that the latter at once relinquished 
all claim to it. Hawthorne may have seen that the incident, 
though touching, offered practical difficulties to the romancer. 

3 There had been many narrative poems with Indian heroes, all 
of which had led to profitless discussion as to whether the Indian 
characters were truthfully portrayed. Longfellow avoided this 
kind of criticism by writing, not of individual Indians, but of the 
myths and traditions -of the race. 

4 This is the meter of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, and 
was adopted because Longfellow thought it especially suited to a 
poem which dealt with the beliefs of a primitive people. 



180 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

popular approval has been in his favor. While he was not 
one of the greatest nineteenth-century artists in verse, he 
knew how to write poems that sing themselves into the heart, 
and occasionally, as in " My Lost Youth," he produced 
strangely haunting melodies. His sense of form led him to 
give balance and proportion to his shorter poems. He was 
especially happy in a few like " The 
Rainy Day," and "The Arrow and 
the Song," in which a stanza of lit- 
eral description and a stanza of 
figurative description are followed 
by a stanza of application. 

Longfellow's limitations as a poet 
came largely from his character and 
mental habits. He was a reader 
of books rather than an observer 
of nature and of men, and his talent 
was imitative rather than original. 
He was greatly indebted to other 
poets, particularly to those of con- 
tinental Europe, both for ideas and 
for hints of form, 1 and his best 
descriptions, such, for example, as those in Evangeline, are of 
scenes which he never visited, but of which he knew through 
the descriptions of others. His temperament and his habits 




Longfellow in 1860. 



1 Poe created a small sensation in the literary world by accusing 
Longfellow of plagiarism ; but Poe denned plagiarism as any degree 
of indebtedness, and he interpreted any similarity as proving in- 
debtedness. Longfellow was the soul of honor, in literary as in 
other matters, and we may be sure that he never intentionally pub- 
lished a line that was not legitimately his own. But although his 
indebtedness is legitimate, it is very great — greater than most of 
his contemporaries realized, because they were not thoroughly 
familiar with the foreign poets whom he knew best. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 181 

also prevented him from being much influenced by the great 
movements of the day, and from expressing himself with 
force. His poems on slavery leave no doubt of his position 
on this question, and the " Building of the Ship " leaves no 
doubt of his patriotism, but both are a trifle thin and aca- 
demic, and though technically more perfect than Whittier's 
fervid utterances, they are far weaker. The poems on slavery 
were written relatively early, when his interest chanced to 
be directed to the abolition cause. The later stages of the 
struggle seem to have concerned him little, and the same 
may be said of the Transcendental movement, and, more 
strangely, of the great New England awakening in art. In 
his cleanness of thought and his moral ideals Longfellow was 
typical of New England, but in other respects he was less 
representative of his community and his age than any other 
of the greater American poets. To the two peculiarities 
already mentioned, — his lack of originality and his failure 
to enter into the intellectual life about him, — is due the 
quality of his philosophy which has led many persons to 
characterize it as " commonplace." " Into each life some 
rain must fall," " As one by one thy hopes depart, Be reso- 
lute and cairn," " Learn to labor and to wait," are observa- 
tions and exhortations that are true and wholesome, and that 
come to almost every one at some period of his life with tonic 
force; but to the man who has felt the doubt and despair 
which modern life sometimes brings they are likely to seem 
inadequate. 

These limitations of the poet may at first seem serious, yet 
to recognize them is only to clear the way for the truest ap- 
preciation of his work. Like other important poets of the 
nineteenth century, he attempted to write dramas without 
having the dramatic gift; but with this exception he usually 
confined himself to work for which he was fitted, and it is 



182 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

only fair to go to him for the things which he really offers — 
not for profound philosophy or novel ideas on social problems, 
but for hopeful, helpful encouragement in meeting the or- 
dinary troubles of life. He has been and continues to be the 
most popular of American poets, at home and abroad. He 
is widely read in England, and his works have been trans- 
lated into most languages spoken in civilized lands. Most 
persons except the very precocious and the very priggish 
have, at least at some time in their lives, found consolation 
and inspiration in his poems; and even those who later feel 
them to be commonplace can recall and enjoy the impression 
that they once made. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne. — Hawthorne 1 was born in 1804 
at Salem, where his family had lived since the early seven- 
teenth century. His earliest American ancestors were men 
of importance, and the one who most appealed to the ro- 
mancer's imagination was one of the witch judges. His father 
and grandfather were sea captains — sterling and respected 
citizens, but not men of prominence. The father died when 
Nathaniel was four years old, and the mother, keeping her 
widowhood in a manner less rare then than now, lived a 
wholly secluded life. 2 In this peculiar home environment 
Nathaniel grew up with retiring habits, and an accidental 
lameness which for some years kept him from boyish sports 
may have helped to increase the tendency to solitude which 
characterized him throughout life. The family had some 
property interests in Maine, and he lived there for a time, 
and attended Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated 



1 The family name was Hathorne. Nathaniel introduced the 
"w" while in his senior year at college. 

2 It is said that she kept almost wholly to her room, and that for 
over thirty years — until her first grandchild won her from her 
solitude — she did not even sit at the table with the family. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



187 



at Salem. He prepared two or three collections of stories for 
which he could find no publisher, though he sold a number 
of separate tales to magazines, and to Goodrich for use in the 
Token, the best of the literary annuals. These appeared 
over different signatures, among them " Oberon," and " The 
Author of the Gentle Boy " — none of them over his own 
name. Although many of them are now ranked among his 
best work, they were so little regarded that no publisher 
would risk a 
collection. At 
last, in 1837, a 
friend gave a 
financial guar- 
antee, unknown 
to the author, 
which resulted 
in the issue of 
the Twice Told 
Tales. 1 The 
Mosses were 
mostly written 
while the au- 
thor resided in 

the Old Manse at Concord, and were collected in 1846 just 
before he took up his duties in the Salem customhouse. 
The Snow Image and other Twice Told Tales was issued in 
1851, after he had turned to longer romances, but the tales 
of which it was composed had been written earlier. Haw- 
thorne was also the author of several collections for chil- 




Hawthorne's study in " The Wayside." 



1 The title of course has reference to the fact that the tales 

had been told before, in magazines and in the Token. A second 

edition of the Twice Told Tales, greatly enlarged, was published 
in 1842. 



188 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

dren. Three volumes, Grandfather's Chair, Famous Old 
People, and Liberty Tree, which date from the period of his 
employment in the Boston customhouse, contain stories from 
early New England history. The Wonder Book and the 
Tanglewood Tales, published in 1851 and 1853 respectively, 
retell some of the old classic myths. 

When Hawthorne lost his position in the Salem custom- 
house in 1849 he began work on another collection of short 
tales. It was on the advice of his publisher, James T. 
Fields, that he expanded the one which he had chosen for 
first place, the Scarlet Letter, and issued it in a volume by 
itself. 1 When this appeared in the spring of 1850 it was 
received with an enthusiasm which had never greeted the 
author's earlier work. From this time Hawthorne was 
chiefly a writer of romances. In the period of activity which 
followed his sudden winning of popular favor, he wrote the 
House of the Seven Gables (1851) and the Blithedale Romance 
(1852), besides preparing for publication the Wonder Book 
and the Snow Image and other Twice Told Tales, already 
mentioned. Hawthorne could write only when conditions 
were wholly favorable, and during his Liverpool consulate, 
as during his term in the Salem customhouse, he produced 
little or nothing; but after his resignation, while he was liv- 
ing in Italy and in England, he wrote his fourth important 
romance, the Marble Faun? In his later years his health 
was poor, and the fact that during the troubled period of the 
War he was out of sympathy with most of his New England 
associates on political matters probably disquieted him. 3 

1 Some passages still remain in the sketch prefixed to the Scarlet 
Letter which show that this was written to introduce, not a romance, 
but a number of short pieces. 

2 Published and still known in England as the Transformation. 

3 Hawthorne took little interest in politics, less than any other 
prominent New England man of letters except Longfellow ; but he 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 189 

He published Our Old Home, a volume of notes and observa- 
tions on England. He also tried to do something more at 
fiction, and he completed for the Atlantic Monthly two serial 
installments of the Dolliver Romance, a work which up to the 
time of his death he still hoped to finish. 1 

It was Hawthorne's habit to keep notebooks in which he 
jotted down anything that might be of use to him in a literary 
way. When he. traveled he often wrote detailed descriptions 
of persons and places that he saw, and Our Old Home was 
largely made up of such material. When he was at home his 
entries often consisted of hints for stories, or occasionally 
of bits of information gathered from reading. Selections 
from three series of these notebooks, the American, the 
English, and the French and Italian have been published 
since his death, and are interesting to the student of his 
character and his literary habits. 2 

The Twice Told Tales, the Mosses from an Old Manse, and 
the Snow Image and other Twice Told Tales are made up 
partly of short stories, and partly of descriptive and narrative 
sketches without plot. The short story was not, as now, 

was always nominally a Democrat, and as he was abroad during the 
important years from 1853 to 1860 he did not change his views as 
many New England Democrats did. Perhaps he would not have 
changed them anyway. He never cared for the abolition move- 
ment, and after the secession of the South he wrote, "I rejoice that 
the old Union is smashed." 

1 Four fragments of romances, some of them dating to a time 
before the writing of the Marble Faun, have been published since 
the author's death. These are the Ancestral Footstep, Dr. Grim- 
shaw's Secret, Septimius Felton, and the Dolliver Romance. All but 
the last named had been abandoned, and are valuable only for the 
hints they give of Hawthorne's methods of literary work. 

2 The American Note-Books are the most important. The stu- 
dent will find it interesting to go through them, pick out the hints 
for stories and sketches, and identify those which the author later 
used. 



190 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

regarded as a definite specialized form of literature, and it is 
probable that neither Irving nor Hawthorne thought very 
much of the differences between their sketches and their 
tales. Indeed it is perhaps in the sketches rather than in the 
stories with plot that Hawthorne's peculiarly delicate art 
best shows itself. To take subjects so thin and devoid of 
striking features as those in " Sights from a Steeple," or 
" Little Annie's Ramble," or the introductory paper of the 
Old Manse volume, and to make from them charmingly 
readable essays is more difficult than to hold interest in a 
story of action. It is the stories, however, that are natu- 
rally best known. In these, as in the sketches, he succeeds 
in creating a peculiar " atmosphere," and often in making 
use of an allegorical suggestiveness that is not definite enough 
to be really allegory. 1 He is especially fond of scenes from 
colonial New England. The interest in his best stories 
frequently lies not so much in the events that happen as in 
the fact that a human being is placed in a peculiar situation 
with reference to some moral problem, or to other persons. 2 
These stories based on situation often involve some question 

1 So many of the stories illustrate this quality that it is hardly 
necessary to give examples. Notice the suggestiveness in the "Gray 
Champion," where we are made half to feel that the old regicide is 
a supernatural guardian of New England ; the symbolism of the 
"Minister's Black Veil"; the allegorical significance, slightly more 
definite, of the imperfection of the bride's cheek in the "Birthmark." 

2 The hints in the Note-Books show that this was the way in 
which he first conceived his stories. For example: "A person to 
be in the possession of something as perfect as mortal man has a 
right to demand ; he tries to make it better, and ruins it entirely" 
("The Birthmark"); "A person conscious that he was soon to 
die, the humor in which he would pay his last visit to familiar per- 
sons and things." "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a study of 
what persons of a certain sort would do if they could renew their 
youth; " Rappaccini's Daughter" is a study of a human being 
whose touch or breath is poison to others. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 191 

of sin; and indeed the author seems to have had an especial 
interest in studying the effect of sin on the human soul. He 
was not, like the older theologians, concerned with questions 
of divine forgiveness or punishment, and he did not openly 
condemn the sinner or plead for him; he observed him in a 
detached, impersonal way, and studied the effects of his sin 
on all who were concerned. 1 In this particular method of 
treatment he was far from being a Puritan, yet his choice and 
handling of literary material constantly reminds one that he 
was a direct descendant of the Puritans. It is almost impos- 
sible fully to understand him without knowing something of 
early New England. 

Some of Hawthorne's short prose tales are among the 
best produced in America, and in writing them he became 
fully master of his literary powers ; but it was in the romances 
that his work reached its culmination. The characteristics 
mentioned in connection with the short stories — choice of 
New England scenes and characters, creation of atmosphere, 
half-allegorical suggestiveness, study of the effects of sin — 
are seen in these longer works. The romances have few 
characters — never more than four or five of importance — 
and interest centers in the simple situations involved. An- 
other peculiarity of Hawthorne's narrative method is the 
way in which he analyzes the minds of his characters, telling 
their secret thoughts and moods as freely as he tells their 
most open actions, yet never raising a doubt in the reader's 
mind that they thought and felt exactly as he says. 

Hawthorne often kept a literary idea in mind for many 
years and it is probable that he had long planned to develop 

1 In "Ethan Brand" the sin is that of hard-heart edness ; in "The 
Birthmark" that of overeonfidence in intellect and in the power of 
human knowledge; in "Rappaeeini's Daughter," somewhat sim- 
ilarly, the sacrifice of all else to scientific knowledge, etc. 



192 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the theme of the Scarlet Letter. 1 The subject of this tale was 
especially adapted to his genius. The story has the early 
New England background and atmosphere, and it deals with 
Puritan practices and ideas. It is, in essence, a study of 
four persons whose situations are determined by their rela- 
tions to a great sin. There is almost no action. As has 
often been said, Hawthorne begins where another story- 
teller would have ended — with the public punishment of the 
offender. He does not tell, and he does not arouse the 
slightest curiosity to know how temptation came to the 
guilty ones, or in what circumstances they yielded. He suc- 
ceeds in creating an absorbing interest in the subsequent 
workings of their hearts, and in the mental and moral ex- 
periences of those whom their acts involve. The two chief 
characters differ in situation because one suffers open shame, 
while the guilt of the other is unknown, and he endures only 
the tortures of his own conscience. The most important 
problem of the book is really that of the use of open confession 
of sin. Allegorical suggestiveness is seen everywhere, par- 
ticularly in the use of the symbolic letter itself. All in all, 
the Scarlet Letter takes almost unquestioned rank as the 
author's masterpiece. 

The scene of the House of the Seven Gables, the second of 
the longer works of fiction, is laid in Salem, and the author 
has woven into the plot some traditions from his own family 
history. 2 One or two considerations, however, kept him from 

1 An incidental reference, a mention of the letter and its signifi- 
cance, is found in one of the early tales, "Endicott and the Red 
Cross." The story of finding the manuscript and the faded em- 
broidery in the attic of the customhouse, which Hawthorne tells 
in the introductory sketch, is of course pure fiction. 

2 A curse, similar to that which the wizard Maule in the story in- 
vokes on the first of the Pyncheons, is said to have been pronounced 
on Hathorne, the witch judge ; and the family long believed them- 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 193 

being quite at his best in the book. In the sketch introduc- 
tory to the Scarlet Letter, written while Hawthorne was smart- 
ing from his dismissal from office, he commented on his as- 
sociates in the customhouse in a way that was at least in 
questionable taste. Salem people sympathized with the 
victims of his attack, and showed their indignation, so that 
during the time that he was engaged on the House of the 
Seven Gables his feelings toward his native city were not 
cordial. In the character of the villain, Judge Pyncheon, he 
tried to express his scorn at the politician whom he held 
chiefly responsible for his removal. Perhaps it is because 
his bad temper interfered with the deliberate serenity of 
his best work that the House of the Seven Gables seems less 
satisfactory than its predecessor. Still, it is one of the great 
American romances, and some chapters are rarely excelled 
in any of the author's writings. It has the New England 
setting, the small group of clearly individualized characters, 
the evanescent charm of atmosphere, and of course a problem 
that has to do with sin — the sin of a proud and self-centered 
man visited on his descendants, as some believe in accordance 
with the dying curse of his victim. 

The Blithedale Romance, the third of the longer tales 
published from 1850 to 1852, has its scene in a community 
that is clearly recognizable as Brook Farm, and some of the 
minor characters and incidents are drawn in part from life. 
It is a study of a philanthropist whose enthusiasm for his 
favorite reform leads him to a disregard of his duties to others, 
and it touches incidentally on some other problems which 
grew out of the social conditions of the time. Blithedale is 
the only important tale in which Hawthorne comes fully 
into the present and deals with the movements that were 

selves entitled to estates in Maine, the title to which they could not 
prove because of lost deeds. 



194 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

agitating New England in his day. It is somewhat different 
in manner from the other romances, and is usually considered 
the least valuable. x 

The problem of the Marble Faun is nothing less than the 
whole question of the use of sin in the development of char- 
acter. This is the only one of the romances that has not a 
New England setting, and in this two of the chief characters 
are New Englanders. It reflects the author's experiences in 
Italy — reflects them so fully that it has been called a good 
guide book to Rome. This characterization was doubtless 
intended as a compliment, yet a romance and a guide book 
are very different, and a good guide book is very unlikely 
to be a good romance. The detailed descriptions of Roman 
scenes, pictures, and statues, and the symbolism and evan- 
escent suggestiveness, to which the Italian setting was favor- 
able, combine to obscure the action if not the problem. The 
book is more variously estimated than any of the other ro- 
mances. It is a work that once read is never forgotten, and 
in some respects is most representative of Hawthorne's 
peculiar genius; but it lacks somewhat in clearness and defi- 
niteness of impression. 

Though Hawthorne's work is read abroad, he never at- 
tained quite so great a foreign reputation as some of his 
contemporaries. This may be due in part to the fact that he 
was so fully representative of what was most subtle in New 
England character. He was little affected by the New Eng- 
land in which he actually lived — the New England of aboli- 
tionism, and Transcendentalism, and awakened interest in art 
and literature. Neither was he much influenced by the more 

1 The author of this book must confess that he is inclined to rank 
it higher, perhaps next after the Scarlet Letter ; but the student will 
be wise to accept the general judgment — with a mental reserva- 
tion if he chooses — until he is able to read all the romances and 
form his own opinion. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 195 

obvious aspects of the older Puritanism. He cared little for 
formal theology or religious observance. He was, however, 
imbued with the mystical, brooding spirit which has always 
been found in New England, and which was perhaps the most 
valuable characteristic that the Puritan had to bequeath to 
the man of letters. Moreover, he made himself, during his 
long and secluded apprenticeship, one of the greatest Ameri- 
can masters of prose, so that in the kind of fiction which he 
attempted he is without a rival in either spirit or form. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. — Holmes, though not the 
youngest of the greater New England group, was the last 
to win literary reputation, and the last to die. He was born 
in Boston in 1809, and was related on both his father's and 
his mother's side to some of the distinguished families of 
New England. His father was one of the few remaining 
Calvinistic clergymen, and he was brought up with strict- 
ness, though he soon repudiated his father's theological 
beliefs. He was graduated from Harvard with the class of 
1829, and studied medicine in Boston and for two years in 
Paris. He practiced with moderate success in his native 
city, and in 1847 became professor of anatomy in the Har- 
vard Medical School, a position that he held for thirty-five 
years. 1 He established himself in a pleasant house on Beacon 
Street, one of the most quiet and conservatively aristocratic 
residence thoroughfares of Boston, where he lived a full and 
active but outwardly uneventful life until 1894. 

1 There is an old story that the young doctor's announcement 
"The smallest fevers gratefully received," and similar flippancies, 
interfered with his success where dignity and a continued air of 
somber wisdom were expected of a physician. His wit was no dis- 
advantage, however, in his lectures to medical students. He was 
given the last lecture period in the morning because he was said to 
be the member of the faculty who could best hold the attention of 
the class at that hour. 



196 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



The important part of Holmes's literary career did not 
begin until 1857, when he contributed the Autocrat of the 
Breakfast- Table to the first volume of the Atlantic Monthly. 1 




Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

He had, it is true, written more or less since the beginning 
of his college days. Among his early poems were " Old 

1 He had published two papers bearing this title in the New Eng- 
land Magazine more than twenty years before. These are not in 
his best vein, and have never been reprinted ; but he recognized 
their existence by beginning his first paper in the Atlantic, "As I 
was saying when I was interrupted." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 197 

Ironsides," his impassioned protest against the destruction 
of the frigate Constitution, and " The Last Leaf "; but the 
greater part of his writings before he was forty-eight years 
of age were relatively unimportant verses, many of them 
humorous, and prose essays on medical and related subjects. 
He had, however, won a reputation as a brilliant conver- 
sationalist, and it may have been this which led Lowell to 
insist that he contribute informal essays to the new magazine. 
The Autocrat was followed immediately by another series, 
the Professor at the Breakfast- Table, and this by his first 
novel, Elsie Venner. 1 Later he wrote two more novels, 
The Guardian Angel and A Mortal Antipathy, as well as 
The Poet at the Breakfast- Table, and a sort of epilogue to 
the Breakfast- Table series, Over the Tea-Cups. All these 
were first published in the Atlantic. 

Holmes's writings all show the traits of his personality. 
He was a man of wide interests, always alive to all that was 
going on about him. His New England ancestry, and par- 
ticularly the position that his father had occupied, attracted 
him to theological and ethical problems, and his profession 
kept him awake to developments in scientific thought. He 
had the traditional Yankee ingenuity and fondness for dab- 
bling in many things. 2 He had a strong sense of humor and 
a clever wit. He was politically and socially a conservative, 
and while he was always on the side of humanity in moral 
questions, he was irritated by the extreme reformers that he 
found about him. In literature he had the tastes of an old- 
fashioned gentleman. More than almost any of his con- 

1 This appeared in the Atlantic as The Professor's Story. 

2 He was an enthusiastic amateur photographer when every 
operator must mix his own chemicals, sensitize his own plate, and 
develop it before it had time to dry ; and he invented the ordinary 
hand stereoscope. The same spirit was shown in a different way 
when, rather late in life, he undertook to learn to play the violin. 



198 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

temporaries he was influenced by the more formal and re- 
strained English writers of the eighteenth century. 

In the poems this old-fashioned quality is shown both in 
the verse form and in the choice of subjects. Like Pope and 
his followers he wrote " metrical essays," — discussions of 
morals, manners, and beliefs in cleverly turned heroic coup- 
lets. His shorter poems with more lyric movement are also 
in the old-fashioned quiet manner. 1 Even the humorous 




Homestead of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



poems are restrained and free from the extravagance and 
exaggeration that characterize so much American funny 
verse. Still better than the wholly humorous poems are those 
that blend humor and pathos. 2 One of these is " The Last 

1 In a good-natured letter to Lowell, Holmes objected to what he 
called "the rattlety-bang sort of verse" in which the Vision of Sir 
Launfal is written. 

2 Notice that the humor and pathos are really blended, not as is 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 199 

Leaf," probably the best of his early poems. In "The 
Deacon's Masterpiece," commonly known as "The One Hoss 
Shay," there is no pathos, but there is a strong element of 
wisdom and common sense. Somewhat similar but more 
whimsical is " The Broomstick Train," published in Over the 
Tea-Cups — a wonderfully fresh and lively piece of work for 
a man of eighty. Perhaps the best known of the wholly seri- 
ous poems is " The Chambered Nautilus," which, like " The 
Deacon's Masterpiece," first appeared in the Autocrat. This 
is almost perfect in form, and has a touch of old-fashioned 
sentiment and moralizing very characteristic of the author. 
Holmes was especially successful as a writer of poems for 
special occasions. Among the best of these are those read at 
successive reunions of the Harvard class of 1829. The two 
most generally known are " Bill and Joe," and " The Boys." 
Holmes's important prose work is of two sorts — the in- 
formal essays and the novels. The former are contained in 
the Breakfast- Table series and Over the Tea- Cups. The three 
volumes of the Breakfast- Table series repeat respectively the 
sayings of the Autocrat, the Professor, and the Poet at the 
breakfast table of a middle-class boarding house in Boston. 
The other characters, whose comments and replies form a 
setting for the remarks of the chief speaker, are as diverse a 
company as might be expected at such a place. These 
persons are lightly sketched, but they seem very real, and 
their doings furnish a slight thread of narration to bind the 
whole together. The rambling talk of the breakfast table 
enables Holmes to show his wide interest in all sorts of 
things. The sudden transitions are well managed, and the 
continued variety gives an impression very like that actually 

often the case, merely mixed. It is impossible to classify some stan- 
zas of the poem as either humorous or pathetic. They are both at 
the same time. 



200 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



produced by brilliant conversation. Among the author's 
hobbies, if he may be said to have any, are his dislike to some 
of the older doctrines of moral responsibility, and his rec- 
ognition of heredity as a force which determines not only 
physical but mental and moral characteristics. He was al- 
most the only prominent New England writer who paid 
much attention to the discoveries and 
theories of modern science in his dis- 
cussion of philosophical problems. Still, 
the essays are far from being over- 

f serious. The conversation at the 

breakfast table ranged all the way from 
weighty and abstract questions to mat- 
ters of dress and the gossip of the race 
track. 1 The Autocrat is the best of the 
series, perhaps because it contained 
brilliant sayings that the author had 
been accumulating for years. The next 
best is probably the Poet, (her the Tea- 
Cups is one of the most delightful books 
that ever came from the pen of a man 
of eighty. It shows that even at this 
age Holmes had lost none of his powers 
or his breadth of interest, but it is 
written, as he says, especially for his old friends, and taken 
by itself is not quite so good as the earlier work. 

The first two novels, Elsie Venner and The Guardian 
Angel were written with the obvious purpose of showing 
how heredity affects moral responsibility. 2 Elsie Venner 

1 It will be well worth while for the student to make a list of the 
topics discussed in any ten pages of the Autocrat, and to notice not 
only their number, but their diversity. 

2 Dr. Holmes's view, which he more than once presents, may be 
briefly stated thus : We do not blame one man for being physically 



An English carica- 
ture of Dr. Holmes. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 201 

is the stronger, and on the whole the better, though in some 
ways The Guardian Angel is even more delightful. Holmes's 
taste was old-fashioned in fiction as in other forms of litera- 
ture, and his stories have the stock characters of hero, 
heroine, and villain, and a touch of romantic sentimentality, 
though the problem that each propounds keeps them from 
being in the least commonplace. A Mortal Antipathy, a 
study in abnormal psychology, is more rambling in plan, and 
less convincing. 1 Holmes's other prose works include some 
medical and miscellaneous essays, biographies of Motley and 
of Emerson, and a volume on his visit to England in his 
seventy-eighth year. 

Notwithstanding his breadth of interests Holmes was in 
some respects a provincial writer. None of his prominent 
contemporaries except Whittier spent so little time outside 

smaller or weaker than another, or even for being physically deformed, 
and we expect less strenuous labor from the weak and deformed 
man than from the strong one. Why should we expect from the man 
who is born with a weak or perverted moral nature the same moral 
achievement that we require of one morally strong ? It should be 
remembered, however, that when the Autocrat and Elsie Venner 
were written the idea of individual responsibility for one's actions 
was still as strong in New England as it had been in the days of 
Calvinism. Dr. Holmes was a conservative, and he would almost 
certainly have objected to the views of modern sociologists who go 
to the other extreme, treat sin as a disease, lay the blame of all 
moral shortcomings on society, and free the sinner from all respon- 
sibility. 

1 The story of this amusing book is that of a young man who had 
been dropped by a pretty nursemaid when an infant, and who, as a 
result of the shock, had an uncontrollable antipathy to all pretty 
girls — an unreasoning antipathy similar to that which some persons 
feel when they see a snake. This state of affairs is ended by a 
countershock, when the hero, helplessly ill, is rescued from a burn- 
ing house by another pretty girl. We are ready to accept Dr. 
Holmes's assurance that medical annals show such an affliction and 
such a cure to be possible ; but so few young men are afflicted in 
this way that the story hardly seems plausible. 



202 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

New England; and his view was always that of his neigh- 
borhood and his social class. He represented the intellectual 
and social aristocracy which he himself wittily called the 
" Brahmin caste of New England." l Still, he was as wide 
in his sympathies as in his intellectual interests, and he was 
in no degree a snob. He showed at its best the sort of Amer- 
ican humor which develops from culture, as distinguished 
from that which embodies the breadth and the freedom of 
more primitive life. 2 His writings, like those of Irving, 
always remind the reader that they are the work of a gentle- 
man; and though he was more brilliant and less winningly 
genial than Irving, his wit and satire rarely offend. He was 
neither the greatest poet nor the greatest essayist of his 
group, but to many readers he is the most delightful. 

The New England Group. — Emerson, Whittier, Lowell, 
Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Holmes were the chief members 
of the most distinguished group of authors that America 
has yet produced. All these were natives and true sons of 
New England, they were all personal friends, they contrib- 
uted to the same periodicals, and were related in many 
ways. Closely associated with them were many other 
authors who lived in the neighborhood of Boston and Cam- 
bridge. There were also writers in other parts of New Eng- 
land whose connection with the central group was more or 
less remote. Many of these showed great excellences in 
certain directions, but none of them can claim to rank with 
the six masters. Thoreau, Mrs. Stowe, and others have 
already been discussed, and a few more, though not nec- 
essarily the most important, will be mentioned here. 

1 Holmes states his view of aristocracy in a passage on self-made 
men in the first part of the Autocrat. 

2 His only rival in this field was Lowell ; but Lowell often made 
use of humor of the other sort, as in some of the Biglow Papers. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



203 



James T. Fields. — The man who did most to bind the 
literary group together was James T. Fields, the head of the 
chief publishing house in Boston, and the successor of Lowell 
as the editor of the Atlantic Monthly. As publisher and 
editor he was the helpful friend of the authors with whom 
he had to deal, 1 and many of the famous meetings of the 
literary set were due to his hospitality, or at least to his 
initiative. His Yesterdays with Authors, a book containing 
criticism and gossipy remi- 
niscence of English and Ameri- 
can men of letters, is interesting, 
and so to a lesser degree are his 
poems and miscellaneous essays; 
but it is for his influence on 
other authors rather than for 
his own work that he deserves 
to be remembered. 

Two New England Poets. — 
Among the more important of 
the minor New England poets 
were Thomas William Parsons 
and William Wetmore Story. 
Parsons was a native of Boston, 
but spent much time in Italy. 

His greatest work was a translation of Dante, on which he 
labored devotedly for many years. He also wrote a num- 
ber of lyrics, the best of which is "On a Bust of Dante." 
The bulk of his original verse is small, and it is not of a sort 
to catch the popular ear, but he was a true poet, and some 




Fields, Hawthorne, and Ticknor. 



1 Mention has already been made of Fields's service in inducing 
Hawthorne to expand the Scarlet Letter into a romance, and to the 
affectionate picture which Whittier drew of him as one of the char- 
acters in the "Tent on the Beach." 



204 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



of his work is almost flawless. William Wetmore Story 
was another Massachusetts man who spent much of his life 
in Italy. He was the son of a distinguished jurist, and he 
himself attained distinction at the bar before he aban- 
doned his profession to become a sculptor. In Italy he 
was an intimate friend of Robert Browning, and he wrote 
" dramatic lyrics " which show the influence of that poet, 
though he used the method in his own way. 1 He also wrote 
prose essays. With Story literature was only an avoca- 
tion, and he did not put quite his 
best energies into his writings, yet 
most of them, and particularly his 
poems, are careful, well-considered 
work. Personally he was a man of 
culture and social charm, and he is 
mentioned appreciatively in the cor- 
respondence and reminiscences of 
the many English and American 
men of letters who visited Rome 
during his residence there. 

Some New England Writers of 
Fiction. — Two of the New England 
writers of fiction, Louisa M. Alcott and J. T. Trow- 
bridge, addressed themselves especially to young people. 
Miss Alcott, daughter of the erratic Transcendentalist, 
Amos Bronson Alcott, was best in portraying the whole- 
some, homely life of a New England family, and she drew 
on her own experiences for some of her most interesting 

1 The best of Story's longer and more ingenious poems is "A 
Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem," a defense of Judas, in which the 
apologist tries to show that the motives for betraying Christ might 
have been wholly worthy. The best of his shorter poems is "Cleo- 
patra," a study of passion which has something of the "dramatic" 
quality. 




Louisa M. Alcott. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



205 






ilfe 

hi 




material. Her stories are humorous, and clever, show a help- 
ful knowledge of human nature, and are not spoiled by 
preachy moralizing. Traditionally they are supposed to be 
for girls, but the boy who, openly or surreptitiously, has 
read his sister's copies of Little Women or Eight Cousins has 
surely found them enjoyable. On the other hand Trow- 
bridge's books, supposedly for boys, are equally enjoyed by 
girls. 1 There is usually 
an element of adven- 
ture in these, but it is 
never of the sensational 
sort, and the story is 
often told with skill. 
In this connection 
should perhaps be men- 
tioned the Reverend 
Jacob Abbott, of 
Maine, whose Rollo 
books are also for 
young people, but are 
written with a didactic 
purpose similar to that 
of Peter Parley. 

Some New England 
Essayists. — Donald G. Mitchell, of Connecticut, who 
made use of the pen name Ik Marvel, was one of the most 
important of the minor essayists, though an element of 
old-fashioned sentimentality has caused his works to lose 

1 Trowbridge had a remarkably long career as a writer, and there 
are many of these stories. Every boy who has been fortunate 
enough to read them at the proper age has his own favorites, and 
will indignantly resent any different estimate of their relative values. 
The author of this book would modestly express his preference for 
the Jack Hazard series. 



Donald G. Mitchell. 



206 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



something of their former popularity. The best of his 
books is the Reveries of a Bachelor, a delightful rambling 
work which is, so to speak, between a romance and a series 
of personal essays. Dream Life is somewhat similar. 
Mitchell's later works are mostly personal essays and literary 
criticism. Charles Dudley Warner, who had literary 
associations with various parts of the country, but who fairly 

belongs to New Eng- 
land, was an essayist of 
the journalistic sort, the 
author of some light fic- 
tion, and the editor of 
the American Men of 
Letters series. The 
Gilded Age is a story 
which he wrote jointly 
with Mark Twain. 
Somewhat younger than 
these men was John 
Fiske, a resident of 
Cambridge, who showed 
in his essays a remark- 
able power of interpret- 
ing the more abstruse 
theories of modern philosophers to ordinary readers. He 
also wrote several works on American history and was es- 
pecially interested in American political ideals. 

The New England Historians. — Four other Massa- 
chusetts historians, William Hickling Prescott, John 
Lothrop Motley, George Bancroft, and Francis Park- 
man, won high rank, though they can be but briefly con- 
sidered here. All were graduates of Harvard. Prescott, 
the eldest, wrote on Spanish history and Spanish conquest 




Charles Dudley Warner. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



207 



in America. 1 Motley devoted himself to Dutch history, 
taking up the story where the affairs of Holland were en- 
twined with those of Spain. 2 Bancroft and Parkman chose 
American subjects. Bancroft gave his long life to a general 
history of the United States, the first volume of which ap- 





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Home of Charles Dudley Warner at Hartford. 

peared in 1834, and the last in 1882. Parkman wrote a 
series of volumes which, taken together, cover the whole 
history of the struggle between the English and the French 



1 His chief works are : Ferdinand and Isabella, The Conquest of 
Mexico, The Conquest of Peru, and The Reign of Philip II. 

- His histories are : The Rise of the Dutch Republic, The History 
of the United Netherlands, and John of Barneveld. 



208 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

in North America. 1 He was a master of both narration and 
description, and his works are wonderfully readable, while 
his painstaking care as an investigator gives them the high- 
est value as history. Mention should also be made of his 
earliest volume, the California and Oregon Trail, which tells 
of a trip that he made in 1S46 into the wilderness west of the 
Mississippi. It is full of stirring and varied adventure, and 

though a strict record of fact is 
more entertaining than most 
works of fiction. 

New England Orators. — Ora- 
tory in New England, at least 
the political oratory of the more 
cultured classes, followed for a 
long time the more ornate models. 
Webster and Everett lived well 
into this period. Wendell Phil- 
lips has already been men- 
tioned. Charles Sumner, the 
especial friend of Longfellow, and 
Rufus Choate were both stu- 
dents of the classics, and their speeches are elaborate and 
filled with quotations and allusions. While these men were 
delivering their ponderous orations in congress and elsewhere 
on formal occasions, Emerson, Thoreau, Lowell, Holmes, 
and hundreds of lecturers less famous were addressing ly- 
ceums in town halls and country schoolhouses. This may 
have helped to bring about the taste for a simpler style of 




William H. Presoott. 



1 This series includes : The Conspiracy of Pontiac ; Pioneers of 
France in the New World; The Jesuits in North America in the Seven- 
teenth Century ; La Salle or the Discovery of the Great West ; The Old 
Regime in Canada; Count Frontenac and New France under Louis 
XIV ; Montcalm and Wolfe; and A Half-Century of Conflict. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



209 



oratory which began to manifest itself before the close of the 
period. 

New England Humorists. — Besides Lowell and Holmes, 
who are so much more than mere humorists, New England 
produced several men 
who are remembered 
chiefly for their fun. 
The greatest of these 
was Charles Farrar 
Browne, known by his 
pen name of Artemus 
Ward. Like many 
humorists of the same 
class he gained his 
training in newspaper 
offices. His fun is of 
the boisterous, rollick- 
ing sort, intermixed 
with quiet drollery and 
unexpected turns of 
thought and phrase. 
Artemus Ward lectured 
with success in the 
East, in California, and 
in England, but he died 
of consumption at the 
early age of thirty- 
three, perhaps before his genius was fully developed. 

Hale and Higginson. — Two late survivors of the Boston- 
Cambridge group were active in so many kinds of literary 
work that it is hard to classify them. The Reverend 
Edward Everett Hale, whose long life extended from 1822 
to 1909, wrote essays, biographies, histories, and fiction. 




John Lothrop Motley. 



210 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 




George Bancroft. 



letters. He was active in the anti 
the agitation for women's rights, 
as in literary affairs, and he 
wrote much on the great move- 
ments which he saw and part 
of which he was. It is prob- 
ably his gossipy and reminis- 
cent writings which have great- 
est permanent value, though 
he published histories, bi- 
ographies, poems, and essays. 
Men of One Work. — In 
contrast to the two versatile 
writers just named stand sev- 



Almost all of this is 
good and readable, but 
perhaps it is some of 
his short stories which 
are most likely to last. 
"The Man without a 
Country," written to 
arouse patriotism dur- 
ing the Civil War, is 
one of the most artistic 
and effective of Ameri- 
can prose tales. The 
Reverend Thomas 
Wentvvorth Higgin- 
son, who was born in 
1823 and who died in 
1911, stood in close rela- 
tionship to the greater 
New England men of 
slavery campaign and in 




Francis Parkman. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



211 



eral who are likely to be remembered, each for only one 
work. Samuel F. Smith, a classmate of Holmes at 
Harvard, wrote the verses of the national hymn, " My 




Charles Sumner and Longfellow. 



country, 'tis of thee." Mrs. Julia Ward Howe will 
probably be known only by the " Battle Hymn of the 
Republic," though she wrote much against slavery and 
in favor of women's suffrage. R. H. Dana, Jr., son of 



212 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



the older Boston poet 
and story-writer, was 
the author of Two 
Years Before the Mast. 
This delightful narra- 
tive tells of the au- 
thor's cruise from Bos- 
ton to California and 
back, around the Cape, 
and is probably the best 
true narrative of life on 
an old-time American 
sailing vessel. Daniel 
P. Thompson, of Ver- 
mont, wrote the Green 
Mountain Boys, an old- 
fashioned historical 




Edward Everett Hale. 



novel dealing with the Revolution, which has delighted 
many readers. 

The Middle States 

Literary Conditions in New York. — Even while the 
Boston-Cambridge group of writers was at its best, New 
York was in one sense the literary center of the country. 
Here were the greatest metropolitan newspapers, and with 
one or two exceptions in each instance the greatest publish- 
ing houses and the greatest literary magazines. 1 



1 The high-grade illustrated magazines were developed in New 
York, and with the invention of improved processes of printing pic- 
tures they outstripped in popular favor the magazines which, like 
the Atlantic Monthly, had few or no illustrations. The best of these 
have been Harper's Monthly, the old Scribner's Monthly, which 
later became the Century, and the new Scribner's Magazine. There 
have also been manv others of no mean merit. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



213 



The Boston-Cambridge writers were all New Englanders 
who preserved their inheritance of temperament and ideals. 
The New York writers were, as in the earlier period, men of 
varied ancestry and training attracted from all parts of the 
country, often for commercial reasons or reasons of conven- 
ience. They did 
not center about a 
great college like 
Harvard, or about 
a great magazine 
like the Atlantic 
Monthly. They 
did not constitute 
a " school," and 
their writings did 
not necessarily rep- 
resent the spirit of 
New York City or 
of the middle 
states. 

Walt Whitman. 
— Walt Whitman, 
the most striking 
of the New York 
poets, was one of 
those who did at- 
tempt to present 

the spirit of the metropolis, or, more accurately, the 
spirit of the nation as shown in the metropolis. He was 
born on Long Island in 1819, the same year as Lowell, and 
about half a generation after the older New England men of 
letters. He received a common school education, and him- 
self taught common school for a winter or two. His most 




Whitman in 1855 — Frontispiece to first edition 
of Leaves of Grass 



214 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

valuable training, however, was obtained in newspaper 
offices, where he held various positions from compositor to 
editor, never remaining long in one office or situation. He 
also followed for a time the business of building and selling 
small dwelling houses in Brooklyn. Until he was forty- 
three years old he lived most of the time in and near Brooklyn 
and New York City, except for a year or two when he took 
a trip to New Orleans and worked at his trade in various 
cities on the way back. After the battle of Fredericksburg 
he went South to find his brother, who had been wounded, 
and he remained in the hospitals about Washington as a 
volunteer nurse to other soldiers. He held government 
clerkships in Washington until 1873, when a stroke of paraly- 
sis necessitated his retirement. From this time until his 
death in 1892 he lived in Camden, New Jersey. 

Few of Whitman's writings produced during his early 
connection with newspapers have been preserved, and these 
few are of slight merit and show little resemblance to his 
later work. The first edition of Leaves of Grass came out 
in 1855. " Leaves of Grass " was a title which he adopted, 
not for this particular collection, but for his complete poetical 
works; and between 1855 and 1891 he published ten issues 
or editions, each larger than the preceding, and containing 
all his poems which, at the time, he wished preserved. He 
also collected a volume of his prose writings which includes, 
among other things, some interesting and valuable auto- 
biographic memoranda entitled " Specimen Days," and 
" Democratic Vistas," the essay in which he most fully ex- 
pounds his peculiar theories. 

Two peculiarities of the Leaves of Crass at once attracted 
attention. The poems were not in regular verse form, but 
were without rhyme or regular meter; and the author dis- 
cussed with perfect frankness certain topics which are usually 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 215 




216 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

referred to but indirectly in English literature. Neither 
of these characteristics seems quite so striking as it did in 
1855, and though neither has won very general approval, 
the critics of to-day recognize that both are the natural 
results of the author's theory of poetry. Whitman an- 
nounced a new poetry which was to be wholly free from the 
limitations of tradition and rules, and which was to treat all 
subjects in accordance with their true value. He discarded 
meter and rhyme because he thought they hampered and 
repressed the poet; and he wrote on tabooed subjects be- 
cause, since all organs and functions of the body are equally 
natural, he thought them equally fitted for treatment in 
literature. His one great word was " democracy," which 
to him meant chiefly " equality," — that every person and 
every thing in the universe is, so to speak, as good as every 
other person and thing. 1 He wrote much of " I " and 
" myself," explaining, what his first readers sometimes 
missed, that by these pronouns he meant not alone himself, 
but every individual. 2 When he specified other persons 
they were^ often men of the class that most appealed to him 
— uncultured but capable, energetic laborers, such as en- 
gineers, omnibus drivers, and street car conductors. He 
extended his idea of democracy to things as well as to per- 
sons, and though he was especially moved by some of the 

1 There is an obvious similarity between this view and the theories 
of transcendentalism. Whitman was early attracted by Emerson, 
and Emerson in turn paid high tribute to the first edition of Leaves of 
Grass, though he regretted Whitman's extreme peculiarities. Later, 
Whitman disclaimed any indebtedness to Emerson — or to any 
one else — but it is probable that at first he was influenced to some 
extent by the New England Transcendentalists. 

2 "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, 

And what I assume you shall assume, 

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." 
Opening lines of "Song of Myself." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 217 

finer aspects of nature, such as the sea, he also wrote on such 
subjects as the compost heap. He even believed in the 
equality of words, and deliberately gave colloquialisms and 
slang a place in his poetic vocabulary. 

There are many questions regarding Whitman's character 1 
and the character of his writings which cannot be discussed 
here, but it will be sufficient if the student grasps the es- 
sentials of his theory of poetry and decides for himself 
whether they are true. For his theory as theory something 
can be said. The most repulsive tramp is still a human 
being, and most of us would hesitate to say that one human 
soul is less valuable than another human soul. The chemical 
changes that produce the odors of the compost heap follow 
the same laws as those which produce the odors of the flower, 
and to a scientist are just as interesting. The question is, 
are the tramp and the compost heap as appropriate subjects 
for poetry as the innocent maiden and the rose? or, to put 
the question abstractly, is poetry as broad in its subjects as 
philosophy and science? Whitman answered these questions 
in the affirmative. Those who agree with him should have 
no difficulty in accepting his poems. The great majority 
of readers believe, however, that art has laws and a field of 
its own, and that when Whitman ignored these laws and 
ventured outside this field he was misled. 2 

1 Among these is the question of his genuineness. Many persons 
have believed that he was always posing, and that he advocated his 
peculiar views only because they would attract attention. In 
support of this belief they point to the oddities of dress which he 
always affected, to his habit of writing notices of himself and sending 
them to the newspapers, and to the egotism shown in his letters and 
other writings. It is hard to deny that he was egotistical or that 
he posed sometimes, but there seems no good reason for thinking 
that he did not believe the things he advocated. 

2 It is unfortunate that the beginner cannot ignore the question 
of the morals of Whitman's poems, but so much has been said of 



218 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



More than one poet has been better than his poetical 
theories, and this is probably true of Whitman. Those 
who are not ready to accept him as the prophet of a new 
poetry find, in chosen passages of his works, much to admire. 
There is a tonic quality in his free, robust view of life, and 
there are bits of his poems that are expressed with great 

power. The absence of the usual 
verse form is likely to prove 
troublesome at first, and perhaps 
the Leaves of Grass would be 
more effective if it were printed 
like prose. In that case one 
would not try to scan it, as one 
instinctively does anything di- 
vided into lines beginning with 
capital letters. Read as one 
would read, for example, the 
impassioned prose of the Bible, 
such poems as " Out of the 
Cradle Endlessly Rocking," and 
" When Lilacs Last in the Door- Yard Bloomed " have a 
wonderful melody, which becomes more and more im- 




Whitman at seventy. 



his impropriety that this is difficult. When Leaves of Grass first 
appeared, critics argued: "Heretofore certain subjects have been 
mentioned in poetry only by licentious poets ; Whitman mentions 
them, therefore he is licentious." As a matter of fact, most of the 
objectionable passages in Leaves of Grass are no more licentious than 
the discussions of similar subjects in a sociological or a medical 
treatise. Morbid and evil-minded persons can get an improper 
satisfaction from reading them, as they can from reading certain 
books in every doctor's library ; but they are to be condemned, not 
for this reason, but because they have no place in literature. They 
are not poetry. The best plan is for the beginner to let them alone 
— there are not many of them — and form his opinion of Whitman 
from passages that raise only aesthetic questions. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 219 

pressive as the reader grows accustomed to it. Even 
in the best poems, to be sure, are passages which fall 
from the general level, and in many are long prosaic 
sections, mere catalogues of things, which only the enthu- 
siastic worshiper of Whitman can consider poetry. But 
it is not by these that his best should be judged. 

In Europe, Whitman has often been called the most dis- 
tinctive figure in American literature, partly, perhaps, be- 
cause Europeans think that the distinctive literature of a 
democratic nation must be wholly different from that of the 
older world, partly because his conception of democracy is 
more nearly that of the European than that of the American. 1 
In America he has won his way slowly, and he has hardly 
won it at all among the people for whom he tried to speak. 
He objected to the poetry of the past because it did not deal 
enough with the common, everyday man, and he tried to 
remedy the deficiency. Yet his following has been almost 
wholly among the academic classes, and not one in a thousand 
of the " common people " knows Whitman as well as he 
knows Longfellow. It is unlikely that he will ever make 
his way directly to the hearts of such persons ; but the rec- 
ognition that there is a partial truth in his theories has done 
something to increase the breadth and range of poetry, and 
his form, while accepted in its full freedom by few poets, 
has influenced the versification of the last generation. 2 



1 For an interesting presentation of this fact see Professor Barrett 
Wendell's Literary History of America, pp. 467-471. 

2 As some students of this book will be making their first acquaint- 
ance with Whitman, a few hints and suggestions may be worth 
while, especially to those who are repelled by their first glance into 
Leaves of Grass. Begin with brief descriptive poems, such as "To 
the Man-of-War Bird," "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors," "On the 
Beach at Night," "With Haughty-Husky Lips, O Sea," "The 
Voice of the Rain," and with such longer poems as "When Lilacs 



220 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The " Bohemians." - During Whitman's later residence 
in New York he was a member of the group known as 
the " Bohemians," of whose meetings in Pfaff's basement 
restaurant on Broadway many interesting stories are told. 
The Bohemians were mostly newspaper men, many of them 
geniuses of peculiar or irregular habits. Almost the only 
members of the group who are now remembered, except 
Whitman, are William Winter, who later had a long career 
in New York as journalist and dramatic critic, and Fitz- 
James O'Brien. O'Brien was a native of Ireland who came 
to New York about 1852 and before his death ten years 
later did much writing for newspapers and magazines. His 
best work was in his imaginative prose tales, a few of which 
had an important place in the development of the American 
short story. 1 

Stoddard, Stedman, and Aldrich. — Another group of 
writers who sometimes looked in at Pfaff's restaurant, 
though they were of quite another sort from the real Bohe- 
mians, included Richard Henry Stoddard, Edmund Clarence 
Stedman, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and Bayard Taylor — 
the last named for a time a resident of New York, but be- 
Last in the Door-Yard Bloomed," and "Out of the Cradle End- 
lessly Rocking." Leave such pieces as the " Song of Myself," the 
mere catalogues, and the passages that have aroused controversy 
until you understand just what Whitman was trying to do. Do 
not be disturbed by the lack of ordinary verse form. Read aloud, 
if possible, but read as you read rhythmical prose, not as verse, and 
notice especially the vividness, the delicate accuracy, and the sug- 
gestiveness of the pictures that the author paints. 

1 The three best of O'Brien's tales are "What Was It? a Mys- 
tery," "The Diamond Lens," and "The Wondersmith." All these 
have some faults of construction, but show unusual original 
imagination. The striking idea of a supernatural being invisible 
but perceptible to the sense of touch, first developed in "What Was 
It ? a Mystery," has been borrowed by various authors, American 
and European. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



221 



longing more properly to Pennsylvania. 1 All these men 
were connected with newspapers and magazines, all were 
good friends, and all agreed to some extent in literary ideals. 
In general, they emphasized the idea that literature is an 
art, not primarily a means of conveying information, or in- 
culcating morals. Their writings were every whit as pure 
and clean as those of the Boston-Cambridge writers, but 
they did not directly preach philosophy like Emerson, or 
specific reforms like 
Whittier and Lowell, or 
personal morals like 
Longfellow ; and they 
gave more heed than 
some of these men to 
perfection of literary 
form. All wrote poetry, 
and all were influenced 
by the greater English 
masters of the lyric, 
and strove in their 
own work for the sub- 
tler tones and music of 
verse. Taken together 
they constitute the 
second most important 

literary group of the mid-century. Though they were 
not the equals in genius of the greatest New Englanders, 
their ideals were in many respects those which American 
literature has since followed, and in some ways they are 
deserving of more attention than they have usually received. 

1 It might be noted that none of these men were New Yorkers 
by birth, or attended any New York educational institution. Tay- 
lor was from Pennsylvania, the others were from New England. 




Richard Henry Stoddard. 



222 AMEBIC AN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Richard Henry Stoddard, a Massachusetts boy who 
came to New York at the age of ten, and who was self-sup- 
porting after he was fifteen, worked as shop boy, clerk, 
blacksmith, molder, and carriage painter before he secured 
a government clerkship that enabled him to cultivate his 
strong love for literature. Stoddard did some editing and 
wrote much literary criticism and some miscellaneous prose, 
but is most important as a poet. He had a fine sense of 
melody, and his best lyrics are musical and show careful 
and finished workmanship. His longer poems were also 
conscientiously done, but are uneven in quality. 

Edmund Clarence Stedman, who much to his own dis- 
gust was often called the " banker poet," came from Connecti- 
cut to New York when a young man, and became a broker. 
He fell in with the literary set, contributed to newspapers, 
and for a short time was a newspaper correspondent, but for 
the greater part of his life he was in Wall Street. His highest 
interest was always, however, in literature, and when at last 
after many financial ups and downs he acquired a modest 
competence he retired to give his last few years to his favor- 
ite pursuits. Even while in business he did much editing 
and wrote considerable literary criticism. His American 
Anthology and Poets of America are still without serious 
rivals in their fields, and similar works on the Victorian age 
in England have much merit. His own poems show con- 
siderable variety. Some of his mildly humorous verses and 
a number of pieces written for special occasions are good. 
Still better are some short idyls of New England country 
life, and a few other lyrics of feeling. 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was born in Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, he spent the last forty years of his life in and 
near Boston, and for a time he was editor of the Atlantic 
Monthly. It is therefore doubtful whether he should not 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



223 



have been discussed among the New England writers. But 
he was in New York during the impressionable years of his 
life, he began his literary career there, and his ideals were 
always those of his New York associates. He came to New 
York at the age of sixteen to take a position in a business 
office, but he was strongly attracted to literature, and be- 
tween 1855 and 1865 he held various editorial positions and 
published several volumes 
of prose and verse. Pie 
was always fresh and spon- 
taneous in his work, but he 
valued perfection of form 
even more than did his 
New York friends. He re- 
vised carefully and repeat- 
edly, and he rejected much 
that he had written, so that 
only a small part of what 
he published stands in his 
collected works. His best 
prose is doubtless found in 
the Story of a Bad Boy, and 
some of the short tales. 
The former, an account of 
a boy " who was not such 
a very bad boy," is largely 

autobiographical, the name of the hero being given as 
" Tom Bailey," and his native town as " Rivermouth." 
It is full of delicately blended humor and pathos, and 
shows an understanding of boy nature and of all other 
human nature as well. " Marjory Daw," a masterly hoax, 
is the most popular of his short stories, though many others 
show almost equal charm of style and careful handling 




Thomas Bailey Aklrich. 



224 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of Riot. Like Stoddard and Stedman he is best in his 
brief poems — " Interludes," he called them. These com- 
bine the perfection of form which we associate with " so- 
ciety verse," and a true and serious insight into life. There 
are fine things in his longer poems, too, but these are hardly 
so sure to last. Aldrich was one of the most gifted of the 
New York writers, and later was one of the most im- 
portant members of the younger New England circle. 

Some New York Editors and Miscellaneous Writers. — 
The New York writers still to be discussed had in most in- 
stances no close connection with the two groups already 
considered, or with each other. Several of these held edi- 
torial positions on newspapers and magazines. 

Nathaniel Parker Willis, a native of Portland, Maine, 
who left New England because he found the Puritanic 
strictness oppressive, was for many years associated with 
popular literary periodicals in New York. He was one of 
the earliest writers of travel letters from abroad, and his 
prose written at home was largely newspaper correspondence, 
afterward collected into volumes. 1 He also wrote poems, 
among which were several paraphrases of Bible narratives 
which now seem thin and inartistic, but which were greatly 
admired in an age when reverence for the Bible prevented 
people from thinking of it as literature. Willis himself said 
that he preferred to do journalistic work, to write for the 
present enjoyment of his readers rather than to attempt 
more ambitious things for the chance of lasting fame; and 
although he was at one time often named among the few 
greater American writers, he is now almost forgotten. 

George William Curtis, a somewhat younger man, has 
already been mentioned as a pupil at Brook Farm. He 

1 Some of the titles of these volumes, such as Peucillings by the 
Way, Loiterings of Travel, Out-Doors at Idlewild, Life Here and 
There, etc., are suggestive of the nature of his work. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 225 



went abroad, visited the 
East, wrote some delight- 
ful books of travel, the 
Nile Notes of a Hoivadji 
and The Hoivadji in 
Syria, and returned to 
take up editorial labors 
in New York. Many 
of his best essays were 
written for the Easy 
Chair department of 
Harper's Monthly, which 
he long conducted. 
Prue and I and the 
Pqtiphar Papers are informal vol 
life. Curtis was also a polished 





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Henry Ward Beecher. 



George William Curtis. 

umes satirizing New York 
speaker, and his orations 
on public questions take 
high rank. 

Henry Ward Beecher. 
— A greater orator, per- 
haps the greatest pul- 
pit orator that America 
has produced, was the 
Reverend Henry 
Ward Beecher, long 
pastor of Plymouth 
Church, Brooklyn. 
Beecher was liberal in 
his theological beliefs, 
and he discussed practi- 
cal questions in the 
pulpit when such a 
course was less common 



226 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

than it is now. He was one of the first American preachers 
whose sermons were regularly printed in the newspapers, 
and he may be said to have had a nation-wide congrega- 
tion. More interesting to-day than his sermons are his ad- 
dresses on political and social topics. He was a leader in 
the antislavery movement, and spoke in favor of the cause 
both at home and abroad. During the war he went to 
England and endeavored to gain public sympathy for the 
North. His addresses in Liverpool, Manchester, and other 
commercial towns where Southern sentiment was strong are 
perhaps the best modern examples of skill in handling a 
hostile audience. 

New York Writers of Fiction. — Among New York story- 
tellers was Herman Melville, who went to sea before he 
was twenty, and a little later sailed on a whaler for the 
South Pacific Ocean, and had many exciting experiences 
on ship and on land before his return. Three of his books, 
Typee, Omoo, and White Jacket, tell of occurrences on 
this trip. He also wrote novels of adventure, the best being 
Moby Dick or the White Whole. Both the autobiographical 
books and the novels are full of excitement, are wholesome, 
and well told. 

William Dean Howells. — The greater part of the liter- 
ary work of Mr. William Dean Howells has been done 
since 1883, but he was really the product of the earlier period. 
Born in Ohio in 1837, he, like many other American writers, 
received much of his early training in the offices of local 
newspapers. In 1860 he wrote a campaign life of Lincoln, 
and a year later was rewarded by an appointment as consul 
to Venice. He had already contributed poems to the Atlan- 
tic Monthly, and on a brief visit to Boston had met Lowell 
and Holmes. While in Venice he devoted his leisure to the 
study of Italian art and literature; and throughout life his 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



227 



scholarly habits and interests have amply made up for his 
lack of a college training. As a result of his first experience 
abroad he published two 
charming volumes, Vene- 
tian Life and Italian 
Journeys. After his re- 
turn to America he was 
connected with several 
New York papers. Then 
he served for fifteen 
years as assistant editor 
and editor of the Atlantic 
Monthly, and since 1886 
has been associated with 
Harper's Magazine and 
for a time with the Cos- 
mopolitan Magazine, Xew 
York. 1 

Mr. Howells has been 
a tireless literary worker. 
The latest list of his 
writings includes seventy 
titles, not counting new 
editions and works of which he is the editor; and the 
greater part of his contributions to magazines has never been 
collected. The list includes travels, poetry, and miscella- 
neous and critical essays, but the author's most important 
work is as a writer of fiction. He is the chief of the realists — 




William Dean Howells. 



1 It will be noticed that Howells, like Aldrich and James, might 
be given a place with the New England writers. The careers of 
these men are a reminder that before the close of the period under 
consideration the old sectional lines which had existed for two hun- 
dred and fifty years were fast breaking down. 



228 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the novelists who believe in portraying life as it is, selecting 
their material, to be sure, but not coloring or idealizing it. 1 
In his later years he has been somewhat influenced by Tolstoi, 
the great Russian novelist, whom he greatly admires. While 
he is not in the least Puritanic, he is wholly free from the 
tendency to choose the morbid and the unwholesome, as 
some FAiropean disciples of realism or naturalism have done. 
Even those w T ho disapprove his work can offer no objection 
to the morals or the good taste of his stories. These un- 
friendly critics complain that his plots lack definiteness, 
that the incidents are trivial, and that his men and women 
have not great souls which inspire the reader. His admirers 
point to the naturalness and the genuine human truth of 
both actions and characters, and say that a real man or 
woman is far more convincing than an impossible idealized 
hero, or a made-up villain. As was said in the discussion of 
Cooper, the question is one of temperament; but there can 
be no doubt that Mr. Howells has done what he set out to 
do, and has made clean, readable stories. His style, while 
sometimes characterized as too clever, is charming, and he 
has an ever-present but never boisterous humor. Besides 
his novels Mr. Howells has written short stories, several 
farces, and short humorous narratives in dialogue form. 2 

1 For Mr. Howells's own presentation of his theory see his very 
interesting Criticism and Fiction. 

2 Among the novels most read are Their Wedding Journey, A 
Chance Acquaintance, A Foregone Conclusion, The Lady of the Aroos- 
took, A Modern Instance, The Rise of Silas Lapham, A Hazard of 
New Fortunes. It is hard to say which is the best. Many of Mr. 
Howells's admirers would give first rank to The Rise of Silas Lapham, 
but most of the others on the list and some not named would receive 
many suffrages for this position. Several of the later short stories 
are collected in the volume Between the Dark and the Daylight. The 
best known farces are "The Parlor Car," "The Sleeping Car," and 
"The Elevator." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



229 



Henry James. — Mr. Howells's greatest rival in realism 
is Mr. Henry James. Born in New York City in 1843, 
Mr. James received part of his education at Harvard and 
part abroad, and has spent most of the time since 1869 in 
France and England. He, too, has been a most voluminous 
writer. His realism differs from that of Mr. Howells in 
that he goes deeper into the 
psychology of his characters, 
or at any rate leads the 
reader to philosophize more 
about them. He is fond of 
studying men and women in 
situations which are not 
quite natural for them, or 
which they do not quite 
understand. Many of his 
novels, especially those of 
earlier date, are of the " in- 
ternational " type, in which 
representatives of different 
countries are brought to- 
gether, and in which part 
of the complication comes 
from the fact that they do 
not fully comprehend each others' standards and views of 
life. 1 In recent years Mr. James's philosophical interest 




Henry James. 



1 This choice of subject is hinted at in such titles as The American, 
The Europeans, An International Episode. Mr. James's early tale, 
Daisy Miller, in which a pure but untrained and overindependent 
American girl shocks the European sense of propriety, was resented 
by some of the author's countrywomen, who thought the portrayal 
unpatriotic and unchivalrous. Mr. James is especially fond of 
getting a group of different characters together, as in an international 
pension, or an English country-house party. 



230 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

or some other cause has brought about a change in his 
style, and even in his narrative method. His writings have 
become involved, abstruse, and hard to follow, so that they 
give little pleasure to many readers who are enthusiastic 
over his earlier work. Mr. James is not only a novelist, 
but one of the greatest recent masters of the short story. 
Most of his stories are somewhat longer than the average of 
those in the popular American magazines, and are more 
solid in content. They show great variety, and are organized 
and told with much skill. Many of the author's plots do 
not end with any great catastrophe or striking climax, and 
in general his work does not appeal to those who want an 
exciting story for the sake of the story. He is not much 
approved, either, by those who demand that their fiction 
shall teach an obvious moral, and his character portrayals 
and incidents are less lightly entertaining than those of Mr. 
Howells. For these reasons he has a restricted audience. 
The reader who is willing to think a little over his fiction, 
and who finds the study of men and women perennially 
interesting, is likely to rank his earlier work very high. 1 

Some New York Writers of Verse. — Alice and Phcebe 
Cary, two sisters attracted from their Ohio home to the 
metropolis, wrote prose and graceful verses, and are among 
the most genuine and unaffected of American poetesses. 2 

1 Among the better novels and tales of moderate length are A 
Passionate Pilgrim, The American, Daisy Miller, An Inter national 
Episode, Roderick Hudson, The Madonna of the Future, The Por- 
trait of a Lady. It is hard to choose among short stories, but a 
tentative list for first acquaintance might include "The Lesson of 
the Master," "The Wheel of Time," "The Private Life," "The 
Tone of Time," "Sir Edmund Orme." 

2 Phcebe Cary is the author of the familiar hymn beginning, 
"One sweetly solemn thought," and of the hopeful juvenile poem, 

"Suppose, my little lady, 
Your doll should break her head." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



231 



Emma Lazarus, a precocious New York girl of Jewish de-' 
scent, wrote late in the period poems, plays, and miscella- 
neous prose. During her more mature years her work was 
largely influenced by her interest in movements for the 
betterment of the Jewish people. She had energy and fire, 
and some of her lyrics, especially, show a high degree of 
artistic finish. 

Literary Conditions in Philadelphia. — As was remarked 
in the discussion of the preceding period, Philadelphia has 
always been a literary center of im- 
portance, but has produced few men 
of letters of the first rank. Since the 
days of Franklin Philadelphia pub- 
lishers have given special attention 
to scientific works and to popular 
annuals and magazines. 

Bayard Taylor. — The most im- 
portant of the Philadelphia writers 
between 1833 and 1883 was Bayard 
Taylor, whose association with 
Stoddard, Stedman, and Aldrich in 
New York has already been men- 
tioned. A native of rural Penn- 
sylvania, he was early apprenticed to a country printer, 
and at the age of nineteen published his first volume of poems. 
He then went abroad for two years, and contributed to 
newspapers a series of travel letters later collected under the 
title of Views Afoot. This was the first of his volumes 
descriptive of travels which before his death covered a 
great part of the globe. When not traveling, he lectured 
and held various editorial positions. In 1878 he was ap- 
pointed United States minister to Germany, but died im- 
mediately after taking up his official duties. Besides his 




Bayard Taylor. 



232 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



books of travel he wrote essays, short stories, novels, poems, 
and dramatic works, and made a verse translation of Goethe's 
Faust. His best work is found in this translation, the books 
of travel, and the shorter poems. 

With the improvement of processes of illustration and 
with the development of " globe-trotting " as a national 
habit, the descriptive book of travel has largely gone out of 

fashion. It was an important 
form of writing in its day, 
and Bayard Taylor was per- 
haps the greatest American 
master of the form. He was 
a good observer, he knew 
what would interest others, 
and he wrote in clear and 
pleasing prose. While there 
may be some differences of 
opinion as to which of his 
poems are best, many readers 
will find most enjoyment in 
the Poems of the Orient, 
published when he was 
thirty years of age. These 
are mostly lyrics, some of 
them influenced by Shelley. 
The most popular is the " Bedouin Love Song." Taylor 
always agreed with his New York friends in viewing litera- 
ture as an art which called for labor and pains, and in his 
later years he became highly critical of his own work and 
wrought out some of his poems with such care that they 
seem lacking in naturalness. This is especially true of his 
two long and ambitious dramatic pieces, " The Masque of 
the Gods " and " Prince Deukalion," though through both 







* 





A "snap-shot" of William Dean 
Howells and Bayard Taylor. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 233 

these are scattered fine lyrics. The translation of Faust 
is a thorough and careful piece of work, and has been ranked 
by many scholars as the best rendering of Goethe's master- 
piece into English verse. Taylor was a man whose genius 
always seemed to promise more than he actually achieved. 
He did not win a place among the greatest American 
authors, but both his personality and his position make 
him an interesting study. 

Some Lesser Philadelphia Writers. — The next in im- 
portance of the Pennsylvania writers was George H. Boker, 
a graduate of Princeton and a wealthy and distinguished 
citizen of Philadelphia. His short poems, especially some 
of his sonnets, are good, but his best work is in four blank 
verse tragedies, and the best of these is Francesco, da Rimini. 
This is somewhat old-fashioned in structure, but it is one of 
the best acting dramas based on the immortal story from 
Dante, and is still sometimes played by the best American 
tragedians. Thomas Buchanan Read was' a versatile 
Pennsylvanian who finally became a painter and a poet. 
Some of his poems are long and ambitious, but he is likely 
to be remembered as the author of " Sheridan's Ride " and 
one or two other brief poems. 

The South 

General Conditions in the South. — The South had fewer 
great cities than the North, and less adequate publishing 
facilities. Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston supported 
creditable literary periodicals, all of which had an air of 
gentlemanly leisure and culture, but lacked the energy of 
the better Northern magazines. Before the war Southern 
men of ability were likely to enter law and politics, rather 
than more distinctly literary callings, and the feeling still 



234 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

existed in some quarters that literature was an admirable 
diversion, but hardly a creditable profession for a gentleman. 
The war, while it called forth many songs and expressions 
of devotion to the Confederate cause, tended to paralyze 
literature. Since the South suffered relatively more than 
the North, recovery was slow, and few writers who represent 
the " New South " really belong to the period before 1883. 

Edgar Allan Poe. — By far the ablest writer of Southern 
ancestry who flourished before the war was Edgar Allan 
Poe. His father was of respectable Southern connections, 
but had alienated himself from his family by going on the 
stage and marrying an actress. Edgar was born in 1809, 
in Boston, where his parents chanced to be playing. Both 
father and mother died when he was very young, and he 
was taken into the family of a Mr. Allan of Richmond. In 
1815 Mr. Allan went to England, and from his sixth to his 
eleventh year Edgar was in a boy's school near London. 1 
Later he spent one year at the University of Virginia, where 
he made a good showing in his studies, but like most students 
of the institution at that time indulged in gambling. The 
gambling debts and perhaps other delinquencies on Poe's 
part led to an estrangement from the Allans, 2 and the boy 

1 The picture of English school life in Poe's tale, William Wilson, 
is said to be drawn from the author's own experiences. 

2 By this time Mr. Allan had accumulated considerable property, 
though when Poe entered his household he was in very moderate 
circumstances. The stories sometimes met with, that Poe was 
reared in great luxury, that he acquired his taste for liquor at Mr. 
Allan's table, etc., are part of the bewildering tradition that grew 
up after Poe's death. Poe's real friend was Mrs. Allan, and it is 
doubtful if her husband was ever much in sympathy with the boy. 
The final break did not come until Mrs. Allan was dead and Mr. 
Allan had married again. The new wife was clearly hostile to Poe, 
but where the justice of the quarrel lay is not easy to determine. 
An obvious though perhaps an unfair supposition is that she did 
not wish Poe to share the inheritance with her own child. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 237 

Lack of sympathy with the prevailing literary fashions, out- 
spoken independence as a critic, an occasional display of 
bad temper, and certain personal weaknesses made his career 
troubled and precarious. His arduous editorial duties, 
which often included the filling of space with his own writings, 
never brought him larger remuneration than that which the 
most insignificant reporter on a daily paper now earns. His 
struggle with poverty was made the more painful by the 
long and hopeless illness of his wife. It was under such 
circumstances that Poe wrote; and while his works are 
not, as some critics have assumed, autobiographical, they 
were necessarily influenced somewhat by his life. 1 

copies of the book for distribution among friends ; and when two or 
three years later he offered the same publishers another collection 
on the same terms they declined, saying that the first venture had 
not paid expenses. To-day probably more than twenty-five Ameri- 
can publishers issue editions of the tales, and the annual sale must 
run into the tens of thousands of volumes. 

1 It is most unfortunate that one cannot study Poe without con- 
sidering the numerous stories concerning his life and moral char- 
acter. When he died he entrusted the editing of his works to the 
Reverend Rufus W. Griswold. Griswold seems to have cherished 
a grudge on account of some harsh criticisms which Poe had passed 
on his books. At all events he prefixed to his edition of Poe a mem- 
oir which is unreliable in many statements, and which it seems hard 
to believe was not deliberately unjust and unfair. His picture of 
Poe as a diabolical monster, moving in gloom and believing that his 
soul was hopelessly lost, took the popular fancy, and the most ex- 
travagant romances about the life of the poet gained currency. 
Even to-day the judicially minded person sometimes finds it hard 
to know what to believe. The facts seem to be, however, that 
during most of his life Poe suffered from occasional fits of intem- 
perance which sometimes interfered with his holding regular posi- 
tions. He was never an habitual drunkard, and he sometimes went 
for long periods without tasting liquor. But total abstinence, rela- 
tively easy now, was sometimes almost impossible when every 
gentleman took wine, and when a refusal to drink might be con- 
sidered as a slight upon one's host or hostess ; and Poe's constitution 
seems to have been such that a single glass produced symptoms of 



238 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Poe's important writings fall into three classes, literary 
criticisms, prose tales, and poems. His criticisms are found 
in reviews contributed to the magazines of which he was 
editor, and in one or two more general essays, such as " The 
Poetic Principle " and " The Philosophy of Composition." 
Poe believed that literature is an art. He opposed the " in- 
spiration " theory of poetry, so common in his day, and held 
that a poem requires painstaking and repeated labor as 
much as a picture or a statue. 1 He defined poetry as " the 
rhythmical creation of beauty," the object of which was to 
elevate the soul and give the highest pleasure, not to teach 
specific lessons. There was nothing new in this; but he 
went farther than most critics who had held the same general 
view, and announced that every poem should be dominated 
by one emotion, and that since the emotions can be aroused 
only for a little time, a true poem must be short. He held, 
too, that in the highest beauty, which is the true theme of 
poetry, is ever an element of sadness. This view of course 
greatly restricted the poet, both in choice of subject and in 
the length and structure of his work. Poe was the first 
critic to lay down laws for the short story and to recognize 
its importance as a literary form. Indeed, he ranked it 

intoxication which in case of most men would result only from ex- 
treme overindulgence. After the death of his wife his self-control 
weakened somewhat, he may have made use of drugs, and it is 
probable, though not certain, that his death resulted from intoxi- 
cation. During most of his life his excesses, though not to be ex- 
cused, were not frequent, and were such as would have been glossed 
over if they had been committed by a more popular man. He 
occasionally showed vindictiveness and bad temper, and was a trifle 
double faced in speaking of his friends. None of the other charges 
against his moral character has been substantiated. 

1 It should be noted that Poe was nearly a generation earlier 
than the New Yorkers whose views of poetry were somewhat simi- 
lar, and that his theory was more fully elaborated and more definite 
than theirs. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



239 



higher than the novel, for reasons similar to those which led 
him to prefer the short to the long poem. He held that the 
tale, like the poem, should be dominated by a single emo- 
tional effect, to the production of which everything from 
beginning to end should tend. His criticisms of particular 
authors were in most cases fair, though occasionally he 
showed bitterness and prejudice. He was out of sympathy 
with the New England writers, partly because he disap- 




Poe's cottage at Fordham, New York. 

proved of their didacticism, partly, it sometimes seems, 
because he was jealous of their popularity. Still, he was 
almost always just, even to them. 1 

Most of Poe's writings conform to his theories. With 
the exception of the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and 

1 His charge of "plagiarism" against Longfellow has been men- 
tioned, but this is explained by his unwarranted definition of the 
word ; and he always gave Longfellow higher rank than most 
critics give him to-day. 



240 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

one or two other tales of adventure whose realism suggests 
DeFoe each of his stories is dominated by a single emotional 
effect, and is short. The presentation of the highest beauty 
he held to be the province of the poem, and in the tales he 
restricted himself to other effects, often mystery and terror, 
and too often pure horror. Poe was interested in many 
problems and ideas that concern the relation of the soul and 
the body, — the thought of trance that cannot be distin- 
guished from death, of mesmerism and kindred arts, of the 
possibility that the body retains something of feeling and 
thought in the grave; and he was fond of studying various 
aspects of insanity and morbid psychology. In the tales 
which are concerned with these themes he often introduced 
horrible and even repulsive details, — evidently unaware 
of the effect that they might have on others, as the medical 
student sometimes forgets that others may be shocked by 
what are to him the everyday matters of the dissecting 
room. 1 

Many of Poe's tales are perfunctory writing produced to 
fill space in the journals of which he was editor, and included 
in his collected works since his death. There is, however, a 
large body of better tales, carefully wrought out, and often 
several times revised. Only a few of these may be men- 
tioned as examples of the way in which the author dealt 
with favorite ideas. " The Fall of the House of Usher " 
introduces the thought of the trance indistinguishable from 
death, and also of a spiritual or mystical relation between 

1 Some critics have held that Poe wrote only for the purpose of 
making the reader's flesh creep ; and many readers are content to 
get only the thrill of horror from his tales. This is to take an un- 
worthy view of the author. Even in the most horrible of the tales 
is something besides the horror, a study of some problem or some 
aspect of human nature. When the horror obscures this, its use 
must be condemned as an artistic blemish, not praised. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 241 

man and material things. " The Descent into the Mael- 
strom " and " The Pit and the Pendulum " study a human 
mind agitated by terrors that come in one case from the 
forces of nature, in the other from the designs of man. " The 
Cask of Amontillado," one of the best proportioned of the 
tales, is one of many studies of diseased or abnormal minds. 
Another group, including " Ligeia," which Poe considered his 
best tale, contain fantastic speculations as to the mystery 
of life and death, and the relation of body and soul. Poe 
was the originator of the detective story. He wrote three 
detective stories proper, " The Murders in the Rue Morgue," 
" The Mystery of Marie Roget," and " The Purloined 
Letter," all of which have the same hero, Dupin, who is 
accompanied by a friend who tells the story. The same 
plan has been followed by the writers of detective stories 
since Poe's day, many of whom have also taken hints 
from his characters themselves and from his plots. With 
these tales may also be grouped " The Gold-Bug," a story 
of the discovery of hidden treasure. 1 The range of Poe's 
genius as a story-teller may be seen by comparing representa- 
tives of the groups of tales last mentioned — say " Ligeia " 
and " The Gold-Bug." The one presents the extremes of 
mystical speculation, and recounts occurrences that are 
made to seem plausible only by throwing a mysterious at- 
mosphere about all, and laying the scene as it were " out of 
space, out of time." The other tells of an unlikely but 
physically possible experience, and, like the tales of ad- 
venture, secures the appearance of reality by locating the 

1 In this story the location of the treasure is discovered through 
a cipher memorandum. Poe was interested in cipher writing, and 
published two or three articles on the subject. It may have been 
this interest which led to "The Gold-Bug" and the detective stories 
— tales of ratiocination, Poe called them. 



242 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



scene definitely, and by giving numbers of homely and 
realistic details. 

In his early years Poe published two long poems, " Tamer- 
lane " and " Al Aaraaf." After he was twenty, however, he 
wrote nothing in verse, except a fragment of a drama, which 
did not conform to his theory that a poem should be short, 
and should produce a single emotional effect. In accordance 
with his conception of beauty his subjects almost always 
have an element of sadness — often, as in " To Helen," 

"The Sleeper," "Annabel Lee," 
" Ulalume," " The Raven," and 
others sadness associated with the 
death of a beautiful and beloved 
woman. Poe's juvenile versifica- 
tion showed some indebtedness to 
Byron and to Moore, but he soon 
developed a poetic manner of his 
own. Two noticeable peculiarities 
of his verse were the use of a 
special poetic vocabulary, and of 
the repetend — that is, of lines 
and phrases repeated with varying 
emphasis and with or without slight 
variation in meaning. 1 The bulk 
of Poe's poetry is small. Many of his best poems were 
revised time after time almost throughout his literary 




wmftwEk 



Title-page of Poe's first vol 
ume of poems. 



1 The most conspicuous examples of favorite words in the poems 
are proper names, like "Ligeia," "Lenore." Certain words which 
he employed in but a single passage give the same effect of poetic 
strangeness — e.g., "scoriae," "boreal," "Yaanek," from Ulalume. 
The use of the repetend is seen in "The Raven," more ingeniously 
if less artistically in "The Bells," and most skillfully of all in "Ul- 
alume" and "Annabel Lee." With this compare the repetition of 
phrases in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 243 

life. Among those which date in their original forms from 
a relatively early period were " To Helen," " Israfel," and 
" The Sleeper." In the last few years of his life he pro- 
duced another group of poems of which the most notable 
are "The Raven," "Ulalume," and "Annabel Lee." Each 
of these presents a single emotional effect, and shows the 
mastery of verse form which he had attained — a mastery 
which some readers feel shows too much conscious art, but 
which was the legitimate aim of a man with his theories 
of poetry. x 

Poe was out of harmony with the literary tastes and ideals 
of his time. Emerson referred to him as " the jingle man," 
and New Englanders generally felt that as his work taught 
no definite moral lesson it was of little value. The mass of 
readers looked on him as an erratic and misguided genius, 
and for years his name suggested his intemperance and a few 
of his more obvious and in most instances less excellent 
works — " The Raven " and " The Bells " in verse, and a 
few of the tales of excessive horror, such as " The Black 
Cat." His recognition abroad came more rapidly; and it 
was partly through the influence of foreign critics, some of 
whom did not hesitate to call him the greatest American man 
of letters, that his countrymen came to feel his importance 
in literary history. He died at the age of forty; and he 
wrote under great disadvantages, some of which were and 

1 In connection with "The Raven" the student may read "The 
Philosophy of Composition," which purports to tell how the poem 
was planned and written. "The Philosophy of Composition" was 
really a thrust at the "inspiration" theory of poetry, and believers 
in this theory were somewhat irritated by it, and refused to accept 
it seriously. Poe did, no doubt, color the facts a little when he told 
how deliberately and mechanically the poem was constructed, but 
there seems to be no reason for doubting the essential accuracy of 
his account. 



244 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



some of which were not due to his own faults. In his per- 
functory and journalistic work there was something of the 
" sheer fudge " x which Lowell mentions so prominently. 
But he left a considerable body of poems and prose which is 
purely artistic in conception and workmanship. He showed 
new possibilities in the music of English verse. He laid 
down what is still often quoted as the best brief statement 
of the principles that should govern in the construction of 

the short story, and he 
himself wrote a great 
body of tales which are 
now classic and which 
have served as models 
for many later writers. 
To-day his position in 
American literature 
seems at least as secure 
as that of any of his 
contemporaries. 

The Charleston Group 
— William Gilmore 
Simms. — The most im- 
portant group of Southern 
writers during the mid-century was to be found in Charleston, 
and numbered among its members William Gilmore Simms, 
Henry Timrod, and Paul Hamilton Hayne. Simms, the 
oldest and the most important of the group, was born in 
Charleston in 180G. He received, relatively little schooling, 
and before he was twenty-one had turned his attention first 
to medicine and then to law, and had finally become an editor. 

1 "There comes Poe with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, 
Three fifths of him genius, and two fifths sheer fudge." 

Fable for Critics. 




William Gilmore Simms. 



TEE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 245 

Charleston was a city in which aristocratic tendencies were 
strong, and as Simms did not belong to the " first families " 
lack of social recognition probably made more difficult his 
success in literature. He was an ardent Southerner, and an 
early advocate of secession. 1 At the same time he was on 
terms of warm friendship with several Northern writers, 
among them some of those whose views were most strongly 
opposed to his own. Like most Southern writers of impor- 
tance he published much in the North. During the war his 
house was burned, and as hostilities interrupted relations 
with his publishers and interfered with the sale of his works 
his last years were not wholly fortunate or happy. 

Throughout his life Simms wrote continuously and hastily 
— poems, dramas, essays, short tales, and many novels. 
His poems and dramas are relatively unimportant, though 
he himself cared much for his reputation as a poet. He was 
best as an author of prose fiction, in which field he did for 
the South, roughly speaking, what Cooper did for the North. 
Most of his frontier tales are melodramatic and bloody. His 
historical and semihistorical romances of colonial and 
Revolutionary times are better. The most popular is the 
Yemassee; others of value are the Partisan and Mellichampe. 
Simms was by no means a mere imitator of Cooper, but had 
much original genius as a story-teller. Unfortunately he 
wrote hastily and carelessly, and even his best romances, 
though they are well worth the reader's while, are full of 
artistic crudities. 

Timrod and Hayne. — During the fifties there gathered 
about Simms in Charleston a group of younger literary men, 
chief of whom were the poets Timrod and Hayne. Henry 

1 Though a civilian his interest in the beginning- of military op- 
erations was so great that when Fort Sumter was attacked he sug- 
gested plans for fortifications, which were adopted. 



246 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Timrod, the son of a Charleston bookbinder, was troubled 
throughout life by poverty and ill health, both of which were 
aggravated by his experiences during the war. A volume 
of his verse was published in Boston in 1860, and after his 
death in 1867 his works were edited by his friend Hayne. 

He was a fiery and 
emotional poet, and his 
best work was lyric. 
Among the most striking 
passages of his poems are 
those which express his 
love for the South, and 
especially his hatred for 
her enemies. Paul 
Hamilton | Hayne was 
perhaps less gifted as a 
poet, but he was a sweeter 
and more lovable man. 
The descendant of an 
old Southern family, he 
studied law, but devoted 
much of his energy to 
literature. Like Timrod, 
he suffered severely from 
the war, and at its close he retired to a small tract of land 
near Augusta, Georgia. He published several volumes of 
musical verse and some miscellaneous work. Like Timrod, 
he wrote lyrics in support of the Southern cause, but he 
was less vindictive in temperament, and he accepted the 
results of the war more calmly. 

Richmond Writers. — In the literary circles of Richmond 
the brothers Cooke were of importance. The elder, Philip 
Pendleton Cooke, was a gentleman and sportsman who 




Henry Timrod. 



THE PERIOD OF GREA TES T A CHIE VEMEN T 247 

only dabbled in literature. His one volume, Frqissart 
Ballads, and Other Poems, was published in 1847. His best- 
known piece is a sentimental lyric, " Florence Vane." His 
younger brother, John Esten Cooke, wrote romances, 
particularly romances of Virginia life in the colonial days. 
His best works are Leather Stocking and Silk, The Virginia 
Comedians, and The Youth of Jefferson, the two last having 
some historical elements. His stories are all of the old- 
fashioned sort in which the heroes are very heroic and the 
ladies very beautiful, and the love affairs develop through 
many complications. The Reverend Abram J. Ryan, com- 
monly known as Father Ryan, was also a native of Virginia, 
though during his service in the Roman Catholic priesthood 
he lived in various parts of the South. He wrote melodious 
and genuine religious poems, and a number of finely im- 
passioned lyrics expressing his devotion to the Confederacy. 
" The Sword of Lee " and " The Conquered Banner " are 
the most popular. 

Sidney Lanier. — The most notable Southern writer whose 
career fell between the close of the war and 1883 was Sidney 
Lanier. Born in Georgia in 1842, and graduated from 
Oglethorpe College, a small institution in his native state, 
he enlisted in the Confederate army, where he served in 
various capacities. After the war he engaged in several 
occupations, and finally became an assistant in his father's 
law office. In 1873 he went to Baltimore to devote himself 
to music and literature. 1 The resolution and the devotion 
to art involved in this step can be realized only when it is 

1 Baltimore had always been a center of culture, and at this time 
the intellectual life of the city had received a great impetus from 
the founding of Johns Hopkins University, an institution which had 
just attracted many of the foremost scholars of the country to its 
faculty, and which numbered among its students many younger 
men who have since become distinguished. 



248 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

known that he was already afflicted with consumption, 
that he had a family, and that he was without means except 
what he earned. He played in an orchestra, did some pri- 
vate teaching, and later some writing that brought small 
returns. In 1879, two years before his death, he was ap- 
pointed lecturer in English literature in Johns Hopkins 
University. All the time that he could spare from labors 

necessary to his support 
he spent in study and 
writing. Before he re- 
moved to Baltimore he 
had published only an 
unimportant novel, Tiger 
Lilies. His first work 
to attract much atten- 
tion was a poem, 
"Corn," which appeared 
in a Philadelphia maga- 
zine in 1875. He edited 
for boys several of the 
old romances and did 
some other similar work, 
and in 1880 he published 
Sidney Lanier. a treatise on the Science 

of English Verse. Since 
his death some lectures delivered at Johns Hopkins and 
other miscellaneous writings have been published. With 
the exception of the Science of English Verse these prose 
writings are relatively unimportant. The novel was 
rhetorical and strained, and the books for boys, though well 
done, are really hack work. 

It was for his work as a poet that Lanier cared most, and 
it is as a poet that he deserves to be remembered. It was 




THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 249 

his theory, as set forth in the Science of English Verse, that 
the relation between music and poetry is closer than has 
usually been believed. In his own poems he worked for 
subtle effects of sound and rhythm, and sometimes seems 
almost to have cared more for the form than for the idea. 
He was careful of "tone color," —the choice of vowel 
sounds to harmonize with the emotion of the poem — and 
he made free use of alliteration, the repetend, and similar 
devices. He was fond of long and elaborate figures of speech. 
Among his most striking and most musical poems of con- 
siderable length are " The Symphony," in which he tries 
to suggest the effect of different musical instruments, and 
" The Marshes of Glynn," which shows his feeling for nature. 
He also wrote a number of short, finished, almost epigram- 
matic poems, of which the " Ballad of Trees and the Master " 
is typical. All his poems, long and short, show the peculiar, 
elaborated musical quality for which he worked. His posi- 
tion as the most promising poet of the South, and his con- 
nection with a new and conspicuous institution of learning 
united with the charm of his personality and the pathos of 
his brave life to win him friends, and to create interest in 
his writings. It is too soon to be certain what the final ver- 
dict on his work will be. Many critics have ranked him 
among the greater American poets, while others feel that, 
whatever he might have done if he had lived longer, his 
actual accomplishment hardly lifts him out of a place with 
the better minor writers. 

The West 

The Middle West — General Conditions. — It will be 
remembered that in the earlier period, while the Alleghanies 
still formed a serious barrier to travel, the Ohio Valley de- 



250 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

veloped publishing centers and a literature of its own. 
With the construction of canals and railroads it became 
easier for Western writers to publish in the seaboard cities, 
and for Western readers to secure Eastern books and periodi- 
cals; and the distinctive characteristics of literature in Ohio 
and Kentucky largely disappeared. A few writers, most of 
them connected with newspapers, continued the traditions 
established by the earlier pioneers, but are hardly important 
enough to deserve special mention. 1 The Western spirit 
and the Western characteristics were not lost to American 
letters — on the contrary, they were more influential than 
ever before; but they showed themselves, snot in isolated 
publications in Western towns, but in the great mass of 
literature which was issued from the cities of the East. 

Some Western Writers. — Stephen C. Foster, a resi- 
dent of Pittsburg and Cincinnati, was the author and com- 
poser of a large number of songs which, while not great as 
poetry or as music, have qualities that touch the heart, and 
are deservedly popular. Among them are " Old Black Joe," 
" Old Kentucky Home," " Nellie was a Lady," and, the 
favorite of all, " Old Folks at Home " (" Way down upon 
the Swanee Ribber "). 

To Kentucky and Illinois belongs Abraham Lincoln,. 
who as writer, and especially as speaker, was one of the 
greatest American masters of simple, logical, convincing 
prose, and who knew how to give such prose the dignity and 
emotional force which commands the feelings as well as the 
intellects of men. He has as much simplicity and direct- 

1 Among the more important of these Ohio Valley writers were 
George D. Prentice, a Connecticut man, who long edited the Louis- 
ville Journal and who wrote poems and clever prose paragraphs ; 
William D. Gallagher, who held various editorial positions in Cin- 
cinnati and Louisville, and also wrote poetry; and Henry M. 
Brackenridge, son of H. H. Brackenridge, who wrote in prose. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



253 



Christ, a novel which has conspicuous defects, but which is 
vivid in its descriptions and sometimes dramatic in action. 
His earlier novel, The Fair God, is a story of the conquest 
of Mexico. Several later works, written after Ben-Hur 
had won him popular recognition, are less valuable. John 
Hay, who held many political positions, among them those 
of private secretary to President 
Lincoln, ambassador to England, 
and secretary of state under 
President McKinley, was also 
a native of Indiana. His writ- 
ings were various and were in 
both prose and verse. The Pike 
County Ballads are in crude 
Western dialect, and present 
some of the Western philosophy 
of life. The most popular are 
" Jim Bludso " and " Little 
Breeches." Castilian Days is 
based on the author's observa- 
tions in Spain; and a novel, 
The Breadwinners, published anonymously, is a study of 
certain conditions of American life. 

Western Humorists — Mark Twain. — The free and 
active life of the West has always been favorable to the 
development of humor. Humor was an important ingredient 
in the character of a man like Lincoln, and humor alone 
has made the reputations of a number of Western writers. 
Henry W. Shaw, who used the pen name " Josh Billings," 
lived for twenty years in the Middle West, and was essen- 
tially a Western character, though most of his writing was 
actually done in the East. Josh Billings's " sayings " are 
brief proverbs and epigrams, many of which would seem 




John Hav. 



254 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



rather flat if they did not attract attention by their bad 
spelling. 

Far greater than the newspaper humorists was Samuel 
Langhorne Clemens, better known as " Mark Twain." ! 
He was born in Missouri, of Virginia ancestry, in 1835, and 
spent most of his boyhood in the town of Hannibal on the 

Mississippi River. By 
the time that he was 
thirty-two years of age 
he had served as a 
printer in various places 
East and West, as steam- 
boat pilot on the lower 
Mississippi, and as 
miner, prospector, specu- 
lator, newspaper man, 
and lecturer in Nevada 
and California. After 
these varied experiences 
in the most distinctive 
regions of the West, he 
went East, where some 
slight reputation as a 
humorist had preceded him. In 1867 he joined an ex- 
cursion to Europe and the Holy Land, and wrote back 
the series of newspaper letters which were afterward re- 
vised and published as Innocents Abroad. After his return 
he lived in the East, with frequent visits to Europe, and 

1 "Mark Twain" is a call used on Mississippi steamboats when 
the river is being sounded, and signifies two fathoms (twelve feet) 
of water. It was occasionally used as a pen name by Captain Sellers, 
a river pilot of an older generation than that to which Clemens be- 
longed. The latter did not adopt it for himself until after he had 
left the river and gone to the Pacific slope. 




Mark Twain. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 257 

sistent, was sound and manly. In his later years he took 
himself rather seriously as a philosopher, and grew fond of 
delivering his opinions on all sorts of subjects — international 
copyright, foreign missions, Christian Science, the foreign 
policy of the United States, and many more. In many 
cases his attitude was too extreme and his attacks were too 
vehemently bitter to command serious respect from those 
who did not already agree with him. On the whole, his 
views and theories had most weight when he expressed them 
incidentally in his romances and humorous works. A 
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, an extravagant 
but cleverly planned burlesque, is really a condemnation of 
Chivalry, which was one of his chief aversions. In Joan of 
Arc, historical fiction on which he expended much careful 
labor, he also expresses many of his social theories. 

Those who care most for Mark Twain's sheer fun consider 
that he was at his best in Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, 
and similar works, many of them written early. Those who 
credit him with great importance as a thinker on social 
questions give first place to some of his later books; par- 
ticularly the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 
and Joan of Arc. The majority of readers, however, feel 
that his most valuable work was done in the middle period, 
and is to be found in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life 
on the Mississippi, and Huckleberry Finn. There is much 
autobiographical material in all these works. Tom Sawyer 
and Huckleberry Finn tell of life in a Southern river town 
as the author knew it in his boyhood, and Life on the Mis- 
sissippi is based on his experiences as a pilot. There is 
much humor in all these; and there is much serious, accurate, 
and appreciative description of the moods and aspects of 
the great river that Mark Twain knew and loved so well. 
There is much, too, that shows how well he knew life and 



258 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

understood human nature, 1 and there are only occasional 
glimpses of the bitterness and unfairness that characterize 
some of his later work. Pudd'nhead Wilson, a later romance 
with the scene laid in the Mississippi Valley, has some of the 
same characteristics as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, 
but neither the story nor the execution are so satisfactory. 

Roughly speaking, American humorists may be divided 
into two groups. One group, which includes Irving, Holmes, 
and not quite so completely Lowell, shows in its humor the 
constant influence of culture, and conforms to the manner 
of expression that prevails in the literature of the past, and 
in the more restrained circles of society. The other, which 
includes Artemus Ward and a host of lesser newspaper hu- 
morists, depends on exaggeration and irreverence, on studied 
drollery, and on the qualities that characterize the banter 
and give and take of men unrestrained by social conventions. 
Mark Twain stands at the head of the latter group, and he 
has done more than any other man to show that this form of 
humor may be worthy of respectful attention as literature. 
He was, however, more than a humorist. While future gen- 
erations may decide that his deliberate philosophizing is of 
little value, his keenness of observation and his feeling for 
some aspects of nature, and his understanding of men, give 
his better works a value that could never be derived from 
mere fun, however clever. 

The Pacific Slope — General Conditions. — During the 
time between the discovery of gold in 1848 and the comple- 
tion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 the Pacific 
slope was an active and fast developing section of the coun- 

1 Every boy and every one who knows boys recognizes the es- 
sential truth to boy nature that underlies the exaggeration in such 
passages as that in which Tom Sawyer permits his friends to white- 
wash the fence. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



259 



try, cut off from easy communication with older centers of 
culture. Here, as earlier in the Ohio Valley under similar 
circumstances, was developed a distinctive literature of 
some importance. Several magazines were founded in San 
Francisco, one of them, the Overland, attaining a consider- 
able reputation. Mark Twain had some associations with 
the San Francisco group. 

Bret Harte. — The most distinctive of the California 
writers was (Francis) Bret Harte. 1 Born in New York 
State in 1839, he went 
West at the age of fif- 
teen, and spent his most 
impressionable years in 
a variety of occupa- 
tions, — miner, tax col- 
lector, express mes- 
senger, drug clerk, and 
printer. He early took 
to writing and in 1868 
became the first editor 
of the Overland Monthly. 
It was in this magazine 
that he published " The 
Luck of Roaring Camp," 
" The Outcasts of Poker 
Flat," and other tales 
which quickly won him 
recognition, particularly 

in the older sections of the country. California, which 
was somewhat sensitive over any charges of social crudity, 

1 Soon after he began to be known as a writer he dropped his 
first name, Francis, and thereafter always signed himself Bret 
Harte. 




Bret Harte. 



260 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

did not fully approve of his portrayals of Western life, and 
in 1871 he went East, never to return. From 1878 to 1880 
he held a United States consulate in Germany, and from 
that time until his death in 1902 he lived in Great Britain. 

Harte wrote a novel, Gabriel Conroy, a drama, Two Men of 
Sandy Bar, and two series of Condensed Novels, burlesques 
or parodies on popular writers of fiction. All these have 
some excellences, but are relatively unimportant. The great 
bulk of his work was in short prose tales. The best of these 
were written while he was in California and immediately 
after he went East. They deal with Western scenes, and 
portray the varied, rude, but genuine life of the mining camp 
and the frontier settlement, in which men of all nationalities, 
all degrees of culture, and all grades of morals mingled. They 
are not written with a didactic purpose, but they show the 
author's optimistic belief that there are some elements of 
good in the most evil characters. They have a touch of 
sentimentality and of melodrama, imitated from the less 
admirable qualities of the author's favorite novelist, Dickens, 
but the best of them are after all essentially true and genuine, 
and rank among the best short tales written in America. 
After he went abroad Harte continued to write profusely on 
this rude Western life, repeating himself somewhat, and never 
equaling his early work. 

Bret Harte also wrote a considerable number of poems, 
some like "Plain Talk from Truthful James," 1 and "The 
Society upon the Stanislaus " humorous, others, like " Her 
Letter," sentimental. He was by no means a great poet, 
but he was a smooth and pleasing versifier, and often showed 
real feeling. Harte had many defects, and his fame must 
rest on only a small part of what he wrote; but a few of his 

1 Usually known as "The Heathen Chinee." 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 



261 



best stories, and perhaps a few of his poems, entitle him to 
a definite place in a history of American literature. 

Other Writers of the Far West. — Among California 
writers of slightly later date was Edward Rowland Sill, a 
Yale graduate and a teacher of English literature in the Oak- 
land (Cal.) high school and the University of California. His 
work was in prose and verse, the latter being the more im- 
portant. His poems are mostly short and personal, and 
appeal strongly 
to those whose 
mental experi- 
ences have been 
similar to those 
of the author. 
A very different 
type of man 
was Cincin- 

NATUS HlNER 

Miller, who 
made use of the 
pen name " Joa- 
quin Miller." 
He was born in 

Indiana, but removed to the Pacific slope when he was a 
boy, and lived there a great part of his life. His most dis- 
tinctive writings are on Western themes, as may be inferred 
from such titles as Songs of the Sierras, Songs of the Sunlands, 
Songs of the Desert, Songs of the Mexican Seas. About 1870 
he visited England, and his poems were praised with what 
has since seemed considerable extravagance by some of the 
better English critics. He is at his best in poems that show 
his feeling for the grander aspects of nature as seen in the 
West. A few pieces, like his lyric " Columbus," are strong 




Joaquin Miller on his estate. 



262 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



and well sustained; but most of his work is imitative, 
strained, and rhetorical, and there was an element of 
pose about the man and his 




Helen Hunt Jackson. 



writings that interfered with 
the highest success. 

In some of her later writ- 
ings Mrs. Helen Hunt 
Jackson, who signed herself 
" H. H.," had some connec- 
tion with California, but she 
perhaps belongs more prop- 
erly to Colorado. She wrote 
verse and a variety of mis- 
cellaneous prose, but is best 
in her stories and novels. 
She was greatly interested 
in the wrongs of the In- 
dians, 1 and Ramona, a novel 
with a southern California 
setting, is largely devoted to 
the portrayal of their treatment by the whites. 



General Summary 

The central years of the nineteenth century were indeed 
the period of greatest achievement in American literature, 
and of achievement so varied and complex that it cannot be 
summarized in brief. A good number of writers continued 
the work previously begun by Irving and Cooper of winning 
for American literature respectful recognition abroad. If 

1 Mrs. Jackson's treatise on this subject, A Century of Dishonor, 
attracted great attention and is still read by those interested in the 
Indian question, but is of little literary value. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 263 

we are in danger of being overpatriotic, it is well to remember 
that American authors did not quite equal their English 
contemporaries — that America produced no poets so 
good as Tennyson and Browning, or novelists so good as 
Dickens and Thackeray, or essayists so good as New- 
man, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Arnold. Still, in all the 
branches of literature that these men represent Americans 
made world-wide reputations, several of which promise to 
be lasting. 

In the period under consideration the New England spirit, 
which had been developing for two centuries, reached its 
culmination, so to speak, and exerted its strongest and best 
influence on literature. Six of the greatest writers of the 
period, and many who were a little less great, were born, 
trained, and passed their lives in the region where their 
devout ancestors had settled in the early seventeenth cen- 
tury. These men had all departed far from the Puritan 
creed, but all of them showed to a considerable degree the 
influence of Puritanism. It should not be inferred from this 
fact that they were painfully narrow, or that the provincial- 
ism which some of them showed was greatly to their dis- 
advantage. Partly because they responded to influences 
from other sections of the country, partly because New 
Englanders had diffused themselves so widely throughout 
the Middle and Western states, these writers were to a great 
extent representative of the entire North, and to some extent 
of the entire country. In all sections of the United States 
were persons who liked their literature to be moral, didactic, 
and mildly sentimental; and an excess of moralizing, didac- 
ticism, and sentimentality is the worst of the literary sins 
which can be charged against the New Englanders. On the 
other hand, many of their excellences — their purity of 
thought, their earnestness, their devotion to the democratic 



264 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

idea, and their interest in the common man — are qualities 
which most Americans regard as national. 

While there was no other very distinctive school of Ameri- 
can writers, men in different sections of the country, and 
particularly Poe and Whitman, opposed somewhat the tend- 
encies of the New Englanders. Poe objected particularly 
to their didacticism, and emphasized the idea that literature, 
and especially poetry, was an art whose sufficient end was 
spiritual pleasure. Whitman objected to the conventionality 
of form and subject, and favored greater freedom of all sorts 
in literature. Poe and Whitman differed as widely in their 
conceptions of poetry as two men could, yet the criticisms 
of both have been productive of good results. The more 
important of the other New York writers, several of whom, 
it may be remembered, were of New England birth, agreed 
with Poe in regarding literature as an art, though they did not 
agree with his special theories. Southerners, on the whole, 
both the somewhat amateurish poets before the war, and 
later Lanier, took a similar view. The influence of the West, 
particularly of the Far West, was for greater freedom in choice 
of subjects and expression, though Western writers were not 
actuated by any such theories as those of Whitman. 

The New Englanders of the mid-century were the last 
great sectional group of American writers. New England 
and the old South were long the two parts of the country 
in which the original colonizing stock remained with the 
least admixture of foreign elements, but after the Civil War 
conditions changed in both. New England, in particular, 
attracted many immigrants from abroad, and also drew to 
her centers of culture men from other parts of America. 
Boston and Harvard College ceased to belong exclusively to 
the descendants of the Puritans. Even the Atlantic Monthly 
passed in 1872 into the editorial charge of a native of the 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 265 

Middle West, 1 and for a time, in the succeeding period, into 
that of a Southerner. As facilities for communication in- 
creased writers in all parts of the country found themselves 
in closer connection with the great centers of the Atlantic 
seaboard, and American literature became more homo- 
geneous, more truly national, than ever before. Within 
less than twenty years after the close of the Civil War sec- 
tionalism, as it had existed in American writings for two 
centuries and a half, had almost disappeared. 

READINGS AND TOPICS 

General Suggestions. — As in the study of earlier periods the 
student should keep in mind the course of American history and of 
English literature. He should also take pains to note literary 
relationships. Discussions of the period may be found in Cairns, 
A History of American Literature, Chapter IV, Trent, A History 
of American Literature, pp. 285-579 ^and Wendell, A Literary His- 
tory of America, pp. 204-513. Among other reference works that 
may be useful are Whitcomb, Chronological Outlines of American 
Literature, Brownell, American Prose Masters, Stedman, Poets of 
America, Erskine, Leading American Novelists, Payne, Leading 
American Essayists, Howe, American Bookmen, Page, Chief Ameri- 
can Poets. 

Selections from most of the lesser writers mentioned may be 
found in Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, 
and from the poets in Stedman's American Anthology. Many of 
the poets are also represented in Bronson's American Poems, Louns- 
bury's Yale Book of American Verse, and other anthologies. 

NEW ENGLAND 

Suggestions for Reading. — For gossip and miscellaneous infor- 
mation regarding literary New England see Higginson, Cheerful 
Yesterdays, Old Cambridge, Howells, My Literary Friends and Ac- 
quaintances, Stearnes, Cambridge Sketches, Sketches from Concord 

1 William Dean Howells. Howells had been assistant editor 
since 1866. 



266 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and Appledore. For the history of Brook Farm see Swift, Brook 
Farm, Annie E. Russell, Home Life of the Brook Farm Association, 
and for a vivid though of course not an accurate portrayal Haw- 
thorne's Blithedale Romance. 

The authorized life of Emerson is Cabot's. Good brief biog- 
raphies are those of Holmes, Garnett, Sanborn. Almost any good 
library will contain much about Emerson, but it is better to con- 
fine reading mostly to his own works. "Self -Reliance" and 
"Friendship" are good essays for beginners in Emerson. A rep- 
resentative list of the poems would include: "Each and All," 
"The Problem," "The Sphinx," "Hamatreya," "The Rhodora," 
"The Humble Bee," "The Snow-Storm," "Woodnotes," "Fable," 
"Days," "Dirge," "The Romany Girl," "The Informing Spirit," 
"The Concord Hymn." The interested student should also ex- 
plore the " Quatrains " and " Fragments." 

The biographies of Thoreau by Sanborn and by Salt are the 
best, though neither is wholly satisfactory. Those who have time 
would do well to read all of Walden; when this is impossible, the 
chapters on "Economy," "Sounds," "Visitors," may be suggested. 
Those who wish to continue their reading in Thoreau farther may 
turn next to The Maine Woods, Cape Cod. Margaret Fuller 
and Alcott hardly repay much study except to the special student. 
The Memoir of the former by Emerson, Clarke, and Channing con- 
tains much valuable material. 

The abolitionist writers other than Whittier, Lowell, and Mrs. 
Stowe hardly call for much attention, but those who wish may con- 
sult W. P. and F. J. Garrison, Life of Garrison, Austin's Life and 
Times of Wendell Phillips, and read selections from the works of 
these men. Among the more famous of Phillips's speeches are "The 
Murder of Lovejoy," "The Burial of John Brown," "Toussaint 
l'Ouverture." 

The standard life of Whittier is Pickard's; the best brief life 
is Carpenter's. The following list contains representatives of the 
different classes of Whittier's poems: "Proem," "The Angels of 
Buena Vista," "Maud Muller," "Skipper Ireson's Ride," "Telling 
the Bees," "Mabel Martin," "My Playmate," "The Sisters," 
"The River Path," "The Vanishers," "A Sea Dream," "Sunset 
on the Bearcamp," "Ichabod," "The Lost Occasion," "Cen- 
tennial Hymn," "The Tent on the Beach" ("Introduction," "The 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 267 

Wreck of the Rivermouth"), "The Hunters of Men," "Massa- 
chusetts to Virginia," "Barbara Frietchie," "Laus Deo," "The 
Poor Voter on Election Day," "Memories," "The Barefoot Boy," 
"Snow-Bound," "In School Days," "The Eternal Goodness," 
"Our Master." Those who wish representative passages of the 
prose may read "Yankee Gypsies," "The Fish I didn't Catch," 
and selections from Margaret Smith's Journal. 

The standard life of Lowell is Scudder's; Underwood's and 
Hale's biographies are satisfactory ; Hale's James Russell Lowell 
and his Friends is a pleasing, gossipy book. The best way to get 
an idea of Lowell the man is to dip here and there in his Letters. 
The following list contains representative poems : " Summer Storm," 
"To a Pine-Tree," "The Present Crisis," " She Came and Went," 
"The Changeling," "Beaver Brook," "To W. L. Garrison," "The 
Vision of Sir Launfal," " The Fable for Critics" (criticisms of a few 
American authors), "For an Autograph," "Auf Wiedersehen," 
"Palinode," "After the Burial," "Harvard Commemoration Ode," 
"Agassiz," "Phoebe," "Monna Lisa," "In the Twilight." From 
the Biglow Papers the student should read some at least of the pre- 
liminary and introductory material to Series I, and selections, e.g., 
Nos. I, II, and III, Series I, and Nos. II, VI, and X, Series II. 
Three of Lowell's most delightful informal essays are "My Garden 
Acquaintance," "A Good Word for Winter," and "On a Certain 
Condescension in Foreigners." The lecture on "Democracy" is 
representative of his later political utterances, and any selection 
from the volume of Political Essays may be chosen as showing his 
earlier manner. In subject the paper on "Abraham Lincoln" is 
as attractive as any. The literary essays are for readers already 
familiar with the author discussed, rather than for novices, and the 
student who reads from them should make his own selection with 
this fact in mind. 

None of the biographies of Mrs. Stowe is wholly satisfactory. 
As in case of other novelists, selections are not very valuable. 
Those who are not already familiar with Uncle Tom's Cabin should 
become so if possible. The other works of Mrs. Stowe that best 
repay study are Old Town Folks and The Minister's Wooing. 

The standard life of Longfellow is that by the poet's brother, 
Samuel Longfellow. Shorter lives by Carpenter, Higginson, 
Robertson, Underwood, and Kennedy are satisfactory. The 



268 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

following poems, most of which will doubtless be familiar to the 
student, are representative: "Hymn to the Night," "The Psalm 
of Life," "The Reaper and the Flowers," "The Beleaguered City," 
"The Skeleton in Armor," "The Wreck of the Hesperus," "The 
Village Blacksmith," "The Rainy Day," "Excelsior," "The Slave's 
Dream," "Rain in Summer," "The Bridge," "The Day is Done," 
"The Old Clock on the Stairs," "The Arrow and the Song," " Evan- 
geline," "The Building of the Ship," "Seaweed," "Resignation," 
"The Builders," "Hiawatha" (selections, e.g., Introduction, Sec- 
tions I, VII, X), "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "My Lost 
Youth," "Children," "The Children's Hour," "Tales of a Way- 
side Inn" (Introduction, "Paul Revere's Ride," "King Robert of 
Sicily"), "Divina Commedia," "Jugurtha." Those who wish to 
sample the prose may dip into Outre-Met and Hyperion, noticing 
the differences between the two. 

The best biography of Hawthorne is that by Woodberry; 
Carpenter's and Henry James's lives are also good; Nathaniel 
Hawthorne and his Wife, by Julian Hawthorne, contains much 
material. The following lists of short selections are representative : 
From the Twice Told Tales, "The Gray Champion," "Sundays at 
Home," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," "Mr. Higginbotham's 
Catastrophe," "The Great Carbuncle," "David Swan," "Sights 
from a Steeple," "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," " Lady Eleanore's 
Mantle " ; from the Mosses from an Old Manse, "The Old Manse," 
"The Birthmark," "Young Goodman Brown," " Rappaccini's 
Daughter," "The Celestial Railroad," "Feathertop," "Drowne's 
Wooden Image," "The Old Apple Dealer" ; from The Snow Image 
and other Twice Told Tales, "The Snow Image," "The Great Stone 
Face," "Ethan Brand"; from the stories for children, "The Gor- 
gon's Head," "The Golden Fleece," selections from Grandfather's 
Chair. Those who have time should read one of the romances, 
preferably the Scarlet Letter. Excursions into the Note-Books, 
especially the American Note-Books, are profitable for those who 
would know more of the author and his methods of work. 

The standard life of Holmes is that by Morse. The following 
list of Holmes's poems is representative: "Old Ironsides," "The 
Last Leaf," "The Last Reader," "Lexington," "On Lending a 
Punch Bowl," "The Parting Word," "A Rhymed Lesson," "The 
Voiceless," "The Living Temple," "Brother Jonathan's Lament 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 269 

for Sister Caroline," "Bill and Joe," "The Boys," "The Chambered 
Nautilus," "The Deacon's Masterpiece," "Under the Violets," 
"Hymn of Trust," "Aunt Tabitha," "Dorothy Q.," "Grand- 
mother's Story of Bunker Hill," "The Broomstick Train." The 
best of the volumes of informal essays is the Autocrat. Those 
who have not time for all may make their own selections, almost 
at random. From the novels Elsie Venner should be the first 
choice, and The Guardian Angel the second. 

Readings in the lesser New England authors should be deter- 
mined by the student's taste as well as by the time at his disposal. 
Brief biographical sketches, such as may be found in Appleton's 
Cyclopedia of American Biography and other works of reference, 
will in most cases be ample. There is some gossipy information 
about other writers in Field's Yesterdays xoith Authors. From 
Parsons every student should read "On a Bust of Dante" and 
"Paradisi Gloria." Two representative poems of W. W. Story 
are "Cleopatra" and "Praxiteles and Phryne." It is to be hoped 
that most students are already familiar with some of Louisa M. 
Alcott's and of J. T. Trowbridge's delightful stories. Donald G. 
Mitchell's Reveries of a Bachelor is well worth reading, and so are 
some of Charles Dudley Warner's essays, such as those gathered in 
the volumes As we were saying, My Summer in a Garden, and Being 
a Boy. Every educated American should know something of the 
four greater New England historians, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, 
and Parkman, but their representative works are too long to read 
in an elementary course in literature. Selections, such as may be 
found in Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, 
may be profitable, especially from Parkman ; and all who care 
for accounts of adventure should read The Oregon Trail. Those 
who have time will find it interesting and profitable to read one 
or more of Parkman's historical volumes complete. The Con- 
spiracy of Pontiac is typical. Sumner's address "On the True 
Grandeur of Nations" and some of his political speeches, and some 
of Choate's orations may be commended to those especially in- 
terested in oratory. Any available selections from "Artemus 
Ward" will give an idea of his humor. Any student who has not 
already done so should surely read Hale's The Man without a 
Country, and if he wishes may follow this by My Double and How 
he Undid Me, or by some of Hale's essays. Those who wish an 



270 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

acquaintance with Higginson may at the same time gain information 
about other writers by reading such works as Old Cambridge, James 
Russell Lowell and his Friends, etc. Dana's Two Years Before the 
Mast is, like The Oregon Trail, a classic account of adventure which 
any right-minded boy will surely enjoy, and Thompson's The 
Green Mountain Boys, while in the old-fashioned manner, is well 
worth while. It should hardly be necessary to add to the list of 
readings "My country, 'tis of thee," and "The Battle Hymn of 
the Republic." 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — Those who have access to 
a file of the Atlantic Monthly may make a study of the early volumes, 
or compare them with recent magazines. (The authors of articles 
in these volumes are given, so far as known, in The Atlantic Index, 
1857-1888.) An interesting paper may be prepared on Life at 
Brook Farm (see references above). The literary environs of 
Boston, or more limited topics, such as Cambridge, Concord, 
Salem, etc., may be made the subjects of interesting reports, es- 
pecially if pictures are available for illustration. (There is a wealth 
of material for such papers ; see, for example, Homes of American 
Authors, — -reprinted as Little Journeys to the Homes of American 
Authors, — Stoddard, Poets' Homes, Higginson, Old Cambridge, 
Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, Swayne, The Story of Concord 
told by Concord Writers, etc.) 

Suggested topics on Emerson : What message I get from Emer- 
son's essays; Why, according to Emerson, should one be self- 
reliant? Why was Emerson a good lecturer? A collection of 
quotable sentences from Emerson's prose; Emerson's poems on 
nature (compared, if desired, with those of some other poet) ; 
Emerson's use of homely illustrations in prose and poetry ; Emer- 
son's life in Concord. (See biographies of Emerson, and books on 
Concord listed above.) 

Suggested topics on Thoreau : What sort of man was Thoreau 
(his character as seen in his writings) ; Camping all the year round 
(based on Walden) ; Thoreau as a minute and accurate observer 
(cite passages from his works) ; Thoreau's humor ; Thoreau's 
essays on nature compared with those of, e.g., Burroughs. 

Suggested topics on Margaret Fuller, Alcott (profitable only to 
those specially interested) : What Margaret Fuller's contemporaries 
thought of her (Consult the Memoir by Emerson, Charming, and 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 271 

Clarke, and, by use of the indexes, Emerson's Journals, Haw- 
thorne's Note Books, Lowell's Letters, etc.) ; An early Women's 
Rights tract (Woman in the Nineteenth Century) ; A study of 
some of the "Orphic Sayings"; The Fruitlands experiment (See 
Sanborn and Harris's Memoir of Alcott, II, pp. 372-391). 

Suggested topics on the abolitionists : Students especially in- 
terested in American history may prepare a topic on Garrison and 
the Liberator, or on Phillips as an orator. 

Suggested topics on Whittier : Whittier's home, and its reflec- 
tion in his poems (See Pickard, Whittier-Land, and numerous 
references in Page, Chief American Poets) ; Whittier's treatment 
of the Quakers (chiefly in the verse, but see also references in Mar- 
garet Smith's Journal, etc.) ; Whittier's treatment of themes from 
old New England life ; Whittier's personal poems ; Whittier as 
a teller of stories in verse; Whittier's treatment of New England 
country life ; A study of Whittier's antislavery poems ; A com- 
parison between "Snow-Bound" and "The Cotter's Saturday 
Night"; A comparison of "Snow-Bound" and Bryant's "The 
Snow-Storm, " Emerson's "The Snow-Storm, " Lowell's "The First 
Snow-Fall," etc. 

Suggested topics on Lowell : Lowell and Elmwood (See Higginson, 
Old Cambridge, and many references in Page) ; Lowell's character as 
shown in his letters ; A comparison of Lowell's and Whittier's anti- 
slavery poems ; Lowell's poems on nature (compared if desired with 
those of some other poet) ; Lowell's personal poems ; New England 
elements in Lowell's work ; Lowell's humor ; Moralizing in Lowell's 
poems ; A study of the "Vision of Sir Launfal" ; The "Vision of Sir 
Launfal" compared with stories of the Grail in Tennyson's "Idyls 
of the King"; A comparison of the Biglow Papers with later 
political satire, e.g., "Mr. Dooley"; In what does the charm of 
Lowell's informal essays consist? "My Garden Acquaintance" 
compared with passages from Thoreau. 

Suggested topics on Mrs. Stowe : Why is Uncle Tom's Cabin 
still read? Character portrayal in Uncle Tom's Cabin; Humor 
and pathos in Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

Suggested topics on Longfellow : Longfellow and Craigie House 
(See Stoddard, Poets' Homes, Higginson, Old Cambridge, Homes of 
American Authors, and references in Page, Chief American Poets) ; 
Longfellow's treatment of American themes ; Longfellow's poems 



272 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of slavery compared with Whittier's ; Longfellow's descriptions of 
nature compared with Whittier's ; with Lowell's — (Choose a few 
from each author and make the comparisons definite) ; The moraliz- 
ing element in Longfellow's poems ; Longfellow as a poet of the 
children ; Evidence of European influence in Longfellow's poems ; 
"Evangeline" (the story, the descriptions, the truth to history); 
A study of some of Longfellow's verse forms ; My first acquaintance 
with Longfellow; or, What Longfellow meant to me when I was 
in the grades; Comparison of Outre-Mer and the Sketch Book; 
Differences between Outre-Mer and Hyperion. 

Suggested topics on Hawthorne : Hawthorne's homes and haunts 
(See Hawthorne's own description of The Old Manse, and of the 
Salem custom house in the introduction to the Scarlet Letter; Bridge, 
Personal Recollections of Hawthorne ; Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, 
Memories of Hawthorne; Homes of American Authors, etc.) ; Haw- 
thorne's choice of old New England subjects; Hawthorne's han- 
dling of the supernatural (compare with that of Irving) ; Suggestive- 
ness and symbolism in the tales and romances; The element of 
mystery in Hawthorne's tales (Find tales in which there is a 
mysterious element. For what is it used ? Is it cleared up at the 
end ?) ; The moralizing element in Hawthorne's tales (Find stories 
which teach morals. Is the moral definitely expressed ? Does the 
moralizing tend to spoil the tale ?) ; Do Hawthorne's characters seem 
real ? (Is the character lifelike ?) ; Hints for stories in the Ameri- 
can Note-Books (List both those which the author developed into 
stories, and those which he never used) ; A study of Hawthorne's 
descriptions; Do children to-day enjoy the Tangle-Wood Tales, 
etc.? Why, or Why not? 

Suggested topics on Holmes : Humor and pathos in Holmes's 
poems; The blending of humor and pathos in "The Last Leaf" 
and "The Boys"; What evidence in Holmes's writings that the 
author was a physician? A study of the "Poems of the Class of 
'29" ; Holmes's patriotic poems; The conception and plan of the 
Autocrat (Why did Holmes choose a boarding-house for the 
scene? Why the breakfast table rather than the dinner table? 
etc.) ; A study of ten selected pages of the Autocrat, listing the sub- 
jects touched upon and searching out the allusions, etc. ; A study 
of Elsie Venner. 

Suggested papers and topics on minor authors : Papers, apprecia- 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 273 

tive and personally reminiscent, may be prepared on What is 
enjoyable in the stories of Miss Alcott, or of Trowbridge ; or one 
may study New England life as portrayed in Miss Alcott's stories. 
Other suggested topics are : A study of Reveries of a Bachelor (com- 
pared if desired with other informal essays, e.g., Lamb's, Holmes's) ; 
A study of one of Charles Dudley Warner's volumes ; The Oregon 
Trail compared with fictitious narratives of Western adventure 
(e.g., Cooper's) ; The habits and characteristics of the Indians 
as shown in one of Parkman's historical works ; What is funny 
in the writings of "Artemus Ward"? A comparison between 
Ward and Lowell as humorists, Ward and Mark Twain; How 
does the author make "The Man without a Country" seem real? 
Some interesting gleanings about New England writers from Hig- 
ginson's Old Cambridge ; Two Years before the Mast compared with 
novels of sea life (e.g., Cooper's) ; American patriotic songs of the 
central period (history, sentiments expressed, tunes to which they 
are sung, etc.; include "Hail Columbia," "My country, 'tis of 
thee," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "Dixie," "Maryland, My 
Maryland," "John Brown's Body," etc.). 

THE MIDDLE STATES 

Suggestions for Reading. — The best brief biographies of Whit- 
man are those by Perry and by Carpenter. Symonds, Walt Whit- 
man; a Study, Burroughs's, Whitman; a Study, and several other 
discussions of Whitman's significance are important, but are hardly 
for beginners. A few poems are named in the note on page 219, 
and the following list is fairly representative: "One's-Self I Sing," 
"In Cabin'd Ships at Sea," "I hear America Singing," "Crossing 
Brooklyn Ferry," "Song of the Broad-Axe," "Pioneers ! Pio- 
neers! " "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "Tears," "To the 
Man-of-War Bird," "Beat! Beat! Drums," " Give me the Splendid 
Silent Sun," "When Lilacs Last in the Door- Yard Bloomed," "O 
Captain! My Captain! " "Darest thou now, Soul," "Night on 
the Prairies," "The Voice of the Rain." Those who wish to make 
the acquaintance of Whitman's prose had best begin with Specimen 
Days, selecting from the table of contents items of interest, par- 
ticularly those that have to do with the author's army hospital 
experiences. 

William Winter is best seen in his Gray Days and Gold, his writings 



274 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

on the American stage, and his late volume of reminiscences, Old 
Friends. Those who care for weirdly imaginative stories will en- 
joy O'Brien's "What Was It? a Mystery," "The Diamond Lens," 
and "The Wondersmith." 

There is a life of Stedman by Laura Stedman and George M. 
Gould, and one of Aldrich by Greenslet, but the student will 
hardly make much use of either. The following lists of poems are 
representative : 

From Stedman: "Kearny at Seven Pines," "Treason's last 
Device," "Pan in Wall Street," "The Doorstep," "Country Sleigh- 
ing," "Toujours Amour," "Stanzas for Music," "Falstaff's Song," 
"The Hand of Lincoln." 

From Stoddard: "How are songs begot and bred?" "The 
Flight of Youth," "The Sea (Storm)," "Birds," "November," 
"In the market-place one day," " Abraham Lincoln," "A Catch," 
"An Old Song Reversed." 

From Aldrich: "Baby Bell," "Nocturne," "An Untimely 
Thought," "Heredity," "Unguarded Gates," " Two Moods," 
" Prescience," "Guilielmus Rex," "I vex me not with brooding on 
the years." From Aldrich's prose read The Story of a Bad Boy, 
and as representatives of his short stories "Marjory Daw," " Quite 
So," "Mademoiselle Olympe Zabriski," "A Sea Turn," "Goliath." 

The writings of N. P. Willis are interesting as showing the taste 
of the earlier part of the central period. From his poems, " Un- 
seen Spirits," " Parrhasius," and "Hagar in the Wilderness" are 
typical, and his prose may be sampled in some of his descriptions of 
travel. 

George William Curtis is seen to best advantage in the essays 
from the Easy Chair, e.g., "Honor," "The Mannerless Sex," and 
any others the topics of which are especially interesting to the 
reader. These may if desired be followed by some of the orations, 
or by some of the earlier descriptions of travel. 

The most interesting of Beecher's addresses are probably those 
delivered in England during the war. 

Melville's Typee, Omoo, and Moby Dick may be recommended 
to the boy who loves accounts of adventure. 

The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps the best of Mr. Howells's 
novels to begin with, and this may be followed by Their Wedding 
Journey, A Hazard of New Fortunes, or The Lady of the Aroostook. 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 275 

The farces may be represented by The Elevator or The Sleeping-Car. 
Some of the author's later short stories are collected in the volume 
Between the Dark and the Daylight. Howells's literary and mis- 
cellaneous essays may be seen in the volumes Impressions and 
Experiences, and Literature and Life, where the student may sample 
those whose subjects appeal to him. 

The beginner will probably wish to confine himself to the earlier 
work of Mr. Henry James. Suggestions for study in the short 
stories might include Daisy Miller, An International Episode, The 
Lesson of the Master, Sir Edmund Orme ; and for the novels, perhaps 
The American, Portrait of a Lady. 

Representative poems by Alice Cary are: "Pictures of Mem- 
ory," "Balder's Wife," "An Order for a Picture," "Sometimes"; 
by Phoebe Cary : "Nearer Home," "Suppose" ; by Emma Lazarus : 
"On the Proposal to erect a Monument in England to Lord Byron," 
" Autumn Sadness," " The Banner of the Jew." 

The standard life of Bayard Taylor is that by Marie Hansen 
Taylor and H. E. Scudder. Representative poems are " On the 
Headland," "Autumnal Dreams," "Song" (Daughter of Egypt, 
veil thine eyes), "Bedouin Song," "Hassan to his Mare," "The 
Song of the Camp," "Proposal," "The Quaker Widow," "The 
Palm and the Pine." Taylor's prose is best seen in Views Afoot, 
or in other volumes of travel which may attract because of their 
subjects. The translation of Faust should not be forgotten. ' 

Among the better short poems of Boker are "A Ballad of Sir 
John Franklin," "Dirge for a Soldier"; and students interested in 
the drama may possibly wish to read "Francisca da Rimini." 
Read may be known from "Sheridan's Ride." 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — - A study might be made 
of the New York newspapers and their relations to young authors 
(see Greeley's Recollections, etc. Make a list of as many as possible 
of the New York writers who held editorial positions, and trace 
the journalistic careers of some of them) ; and a paper, perhaps 
more interesting than profitable, might be compiled on the reminis- 
cences ©T the famous Pfaff 's restaurant (see Stoddard, Recollections, 
Winter, Old Friends, etc.). 

Suggested topics on Whitman : Whitman's hospital experiences 
as told in Specimen Days, The Wound-Dresser, etc. ; Whitman's 
treatment of the sea in his poems; What seems "unpoetic" in 



276 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Whitman's work ? A selection of quotable expressions from 
Leaves of Grass; Whitman's tributes to Lincoln in prose and verse. 

Suggested topics on Stedman, Stoddard, Aldrich : The literary 
friendship of Stedman, Stoddard, Aldrich, and Taylor (see the 
biographies of each) ; The subjects of Stedman's and Stoddard's 
poems compared with those of the New England poets ; Choose 
the ten most musical poems of each of the three authors; The 
Story of a Bad Boy compared with other semi-autobiographic books 
{e.g., Tom Sawyer, Howells's A Boy's Town, Warner's Being a Boy). 

Suggested topics on lesser New York authors : O'Brien's stories 
compared with Poe's; Willis's paraphrases of scripture stories; 
Curtis as a social preacher; The "Easy-Chair" essays (sub- 
jects treated, comparison with other informal essays) ; How Beecher 
handled a hostile audience (a study of the Liverpool and Man- 
chester addresses) ; A comparison of one of Melville's stories with 
Two Years before the Mast. 

Suggested topics on Mr. Howells and Mr. James : The Character 
of Silas Lapham ; Mr. Howells's portrayal of some women charac- 
ters ; How Mr. Howells makes his characters seem real ; A com- 
parison of Mr. James's realism with Mr. Howells's (characters, 
scenes, object in writing) ; The supernatural in some stories of Mr. 
James and Mr. Howells (compare with each other, or with some 
earlier writer). 

Suggested topics on Pennsylvania writers : Striking experiences 
from Views Afoot; Old-fashioned books of travel (compare two or 
more works, e.g., one of Taylor's volumes, one of Willis's, Outre- 
Mer, Emerson's English Traits, Hawthorne's Our Old Home, one 
of Curtis's travel volumes, Howells's Venetian Life, etc.) ; or, Views 
Afoot compared with some recent books of travel. The ten most 
musical of Taylor's poems; Boker's "Francesca da Rimini" com- 
pared with Stephen Phillips's treatment of the same theme (rather 
difficult) ; "Sheridan's Ride" — the event and the poem. 

THE SOUTH 

Suggestions for Reading. — Useful works on Southern literature 
in general are : Moses, The Literature of the South, Holliday, A 
History of Southern Literature, Link, Pioneers of Southern Litera- 
ture, Baskorville, Sotdhern Writers, Pickett, Literary Hearthstones 
of Dixie, Hubner, Representative Southern Poets, Trent, Southern 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 277 

Writers; Selections in Prose and Verse, Painter, The Poets of Vir- 
ginia, Wauchope, The Writers of South Carolina. 

The best life of Poe is that by George E. Woodberry (two vol- 
umes, 1909 ; not to be confounded with an earlier one-volume life 
by the same author). Since there are so many untrue and even 
wild stories regarding Poe's life the student should be sure to de- 
pend on recent and reliable biographical sketches. The two best 
editions of Poe's works are those edited by Harrison and by Sted- 
man & Woodberry. An idea of Poe's criticism may be gained from 
"The Poetic Principle," "The Philosophy of Composition," two 
reviews of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales, and other reviews of the 
student's own choosing. The following list of poems is fairly rep- 
resentative : "To Science," "To Helen" (Helen, thy beauty is to 
me), "Israfel," "The Sleeper," "Lenore," "The Haunted Palace," 
"Dreamland," "The Raven," "Ulalume," "Annabel Lee," "The 
Bells." The tales are of so many different kinds and tastes differ 
so widely that it is hard to suggest a list for study, but a selection 
may be made from the following: "MS. found in a Bottle," "Mo- 
rella," "The Unparalleled Adventures of one Hans Pfaall," "The 
Assignation," "Shadow," "The Fall of the House of Usher," 
"William Wilson," "The Man of the Crowd," "The Murders in 
the Rue Morgue," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Pit 
and the Pendulum," "The Gold-Bug," "The Tell-Tale Heart," 
"The Purloined Letter," "The Imp of the Perverse," "The Cask 
of Amontillado," "Landor's Cottage." 

There is a good life of Simms by W. D. Trent. The Yemassee 
is probably the best of Simms' s novels with which to begin, and this 
may be followed by The Partisan and Mellichampe. 

Representative poems by Timrod are: "Spring," "The Cotton 
Boll," "Carolina," "Charleston," "Ode"; by Hayne, "Aspect of 
the Pines," "A Dream of the South Winds," "In Harbor"; by 
P. P. Cooke, "Florence Vane"; by Abram J. Ryan, "The Con- 
quered Banner," "The Sword of Lee." Leather Stocking and Silk, 
or The Virginia Comedians should be the first choice from J. E. 
Cooke's works. 

The standard life of Lanier is that of Minis. Among repre- 
sentative poems of Lanier are "Sunrise," "The Marshes of Glynn," 
"Song of the Chattahoochee," "The Mocking Bird," "The Re- 
venge of Hamish," "Corn," "The Symphony," "A Ballad of Trees 



278 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and the Master," "Evening Song," "Betrayal," "Night and Day." 
The beginner is likely to spend little time on Lanier's prose, but 
may if he wishes dip into the letters, and glance at the Science of 
English Verse, and some of the critical essays. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — Papers might be prepared 
on literary conditions in various cities of the South, especially 
Charleston (See Trent, Life of Simms, etc.) ; and on The South- 
ern Literary Messenger (See Minor, The Southern Literary 
Messenger) . 

Suggested topics on Poe : Poe's theory of poetry and its exem- 
plification in his own poems (See "The Poetic Principle," etc.); 
What devices does Poe use to make his poems musical ? A study 
of the changes that Poe made in two or three of his poems (e.g., 
"To Helen," "The Sleeper," "Lenore"); Poe's attack on Long- 
fellow (See Harrison's Virginia edition of Poe, XII, 41-106) ; 
Poe's theory of the short story and its exemplification in his own 
stories (See his reviews of Hawthorne) ; Poe's choice of scenes and 
settings for his stories ; The characters in Poe's stories (Why does 
he not tell us more about them ?) ; Poe's use of the supernatural 
(Compare with Irving's and Hawthorne's) ; Poe's detective stories 
compared with those of his successors ; Resemblances between 
"The Gold-Bug" and Stevenson's Treasure Island; Poe's humor. 

Suggested topics on other Southern writers : Early life in the 
South as portrayed by Simms; One of Simms's novels compared 
with one of Cooper's ; Simms's treatment of the Indians ; Timrod's 
war poems compared with Whittier's or Lowell's; Timrod and 
Hayne — the story of their friendship, the men and their poems 
compared ; The political and sectional poems of Timrod and Hayne 
compared with those of Northern writers, e.g., Whittier ; Represent- 
ative Southern songs of sentiment ("My life is like the summer 
rose," "Florence Vane," "I break the glass," and others to be 
found by the student) ; Father Ryan's songs of the South compared 
with those of antislavery writers at the North ; J. E. Cooke as a 
writer of old-fashioned romance. 

Suggested topics on Lanier : Lanier's theory of poetry illustrated 
from his own verse (difficult) ; Southern life as reflected in Lanier's 
poems ; Lanier's treatment of Nature in the poems ; Lanier's 
poems compared with those of Poe (How does each poet produce 
his peculiar effects?). 



THE PERIOD OF GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT 279 



THE WEST 

Suggestions for Reading. — If any student is not already familiar 
with Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," and "Second Inaugural 
Address," he should read these, and may follow them with parts of 
the debate with Douglas and other speeches. 

Among the most representative novels of Edward Eggleston are 
The Hoosier School- Master, The Circuit Rider, and Roxy. The 
best work of Lew Wallace is Ben-Hur. John Hay's distinctive 
humor is seen in the Pike County Ballads, of which two of the best 
known are "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle," and "Little 
Breeches." Hay's serious poetry is less important; his early 
prose may be seen in Castilian Days, and his later and more serious 
work in the life of Lincoln. Selections such as may be found in 
Stedman & Hutchinson, A Library of American Literature, will be 
ample for "Josh Billings." 

It is hard to suggest a brief list of readings that is fully represent- 
ative of Mark Twain. If the student could read but one book per- 
haps the best would be Huckleberry Finn. This, Tom Sawyer, 
Joan of Arc, The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and 
Pudd'nhead Wilson can be fairly judged only when read entire. 
Works like Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and Life on the Mis- 
sissippi can well be read by extracts. 

There are lives of Bret Harte by Pemberton, Merwin, and 
Boynton, none of them very satisfactory. Representative poems of 
Harte are "Jim," "Her Letter," "Grizzly," "Plain Talk from 
Truthful James," "The Society upon the Stanislaus," "Dickens 
in Camp." Among his best tales are "The Luck of Roaring Camp," 
"The Outcasts of Poker Flat," "Tennessee's Partner." 

Representatives of Sill's poems are: "A Fool's Prayer," 
"Tempted"; of "Joaquin" Miller's, "Columbus," "Crossing the 
plains"; of Helen Hunt Jackson's, "Poppies in the Wheat," "Cor- 
onation." The most popular of Mrs. Jackson's prose works, and 
probably the best to read, is Ramona. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — Students especially in- 
terested might prepare papers on early magazines in Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois (See Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the 
Ohio Valley) ; or on the early history of the Overland Monthly. 

Suggested topics on lesser authors : The songs of Stephen C. 



280 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Foster ; Lincoln as an orator (contrasted with Webster and others 
of the old school) ; Frontier life as portrayed in one of Eggleston's 
novels; Striking descriptive passages in Ben-Hur; Hay's dialect 
poems compared with Lowell's. 

Suggested topics on Mark Twain : Mark Twain's humor com- 
pared with that of "Artemus Ward"; with that of Lowell and 
Holmes; The element of exaggeration in Mark Twain's humor; 
The element of irreverence in Mark Twain's humor ; Striking de- 
scriptive passages from Huckleberry Finn and Life on the Mississippi ; 
Mark Twain's patriotism as seen in his works ; Mark Twain's 
view of slavery as seen in Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson. 

Suggested topics on writers of the Pacific coast : The moral 
teaching of Harte's tales ; Harte's humor, as seen in his verse 
and prose; Harte's treatment of nature; Harte's pictures of 
Western life compared with those of Mark Twain in Roughing It, 
etc. ; Resemblances between Harte and Dickens ; Mrs. Jackson's 
view of the Indians compared with that of other American writers 
of fiction. 



CHAPTER V 

RECENT YEARS 

1883-1914 

General Conditions. — If a literary period is to be judged 
by its masterpieces and great names, the last thirty years 
in American literary history have been far less important 
than the fifty that went just before. Many of the writers 
who were discussed in the preceding chapter lived and worked 
far into this later period, and two or three are still living, 
but no man who had not made his reputation before 1883 
is quite sure of a place with the greater authors of the last 
century. There have been, and are, many good writers, 
perhaps more than ever before. There have been, and are, 
many good magazines; and more American books are read 
abroad than at any preceding time; but there is a lack of 
men of such preeminence that they are sure of lasting fame. 
It is hardly necessary to point out that the same is to a 
great extent true in English literature of the same period. 
There are those who believe that this indicates a change in 
literary history; that the age of the few great writers has 
passed, and that of literary democracy has come. It seems 
more likely, however, that the English-speaking peoples 
have been experiencing one of the periods of uncertainty 
that is likely to follow a creative period. If this is so we may 
hope that in the fullness of time there will appear other great 
writers, greater, perhaps, than any that have gone before. 

281 



282 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

This chapter will be occupied chiefly with the discussion 
of general movements. An attempt will be made to esti- 
mate the value of a few writers whose work is finished ; and a 
few living authors, though not necessarily the most impor- 
tant, will be mentioned to illustrate tendencies and kinds of 
writing. In general, however, specific criticisms of men and 
books will be avoided. 1 

It was said at the conclusion of the preceding chapter that 
shortly after the close of the Civil War the older sectionalism 
in letters passed away. With the development of the rail- 
road, the telegraph, the telephone, and also of the public 
library, the reasons of convenience that drew authors into the 
greater cities have largely disappeared. While publishing in- 
terests are grouped, even more than formerly, in a few centers, 
authors are scattered over the entire country. It is possible 
for a writer to live in Georgia, or Indiana, or California, and 
still keep in touch with the thought of the time, and publish 
in New York or Boston almost as well as if he lived in one 
of these cities. One result of this scattered residence is 
that, there are no longer " schools " or closely unified groups 
of authors. Another is that writers, especially writers of 
prose fiction, make more and better use than before of local 
scenes, characters, and dialects. This latter manifestation 
of sectionalism is, however, only on the surface. In spirit, 

1 The discussion in a formal history of the writings of contem- 
poraries is always a difficult and a dangerous matter. Much of 
the literary criticism of the past is a warning that only after the 
lapse of a reasonable time can the relative value of an author's 
work be safely estimated. This does not mean that a reader should 
be afraid to form his own judgments, or to say what he thinks ; 
but he should realize that he is likely to change his mind after a 
time. The discussion of recent writings under the guidance of 
the instructor may be made an interesting and a legitimate part of 
a course in American literature, but it should not be undertaken 
too seriously. 



RECENT YEARS 283 

American literature has at last become as truly national, 
perhaps, as the literature of so great and complex a country 
can become. To this new literature representatives of all 
parts of the country are contributing. It is especially nota- 
ble that the South, which has never before produced litera- 
ture in proportion to the culture and intellect of its people, 
has done its full share in recent years. 

One important fact in the literary development of the last 
generation has been the growth in number and importance 
of magazines. The invention of new processes of illustra- 
tion and the development of a system by which periodicals 
receive great returns from advertising have led to the creation 
of magazines such as would have been impossible fifty years 
ago. These are important, on the one hand, because they 
are able to command the productions of the best writers, 
and, on the other, because they form a great part of the 
reading of the general public. With this development, which 
is on the whole for the better, has come some loss. The older 
type of literary magazine, which like the Atlantic fifty years 
ago appealed to a somewhat select class of readers, hardly 
exists to-day. Even the better periodicals suffer somewhat 
from their attempts to be popular, and have less literary 
distinction than formerly. Since the very best writers 
contribute largely to the magazines, it follows that almost 
all literary writing has experienced a similar change. Here, 
as elsewhere, the tendency is toward the greater democracy 
of letters. More persons than ever before are able to ap- 
preciate good literature, but on the other hand writers are 
asking more than ever before what will appeal to popular 
taste. Whether this writing for the average man does not 
temporarily lower the artistic standard may well be ques- 
tioned; but no one who has faith in mankind will become 
pessimistic over the future of literature. 



284 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Writers of the Short Story. — Owing partly, perhaps, to 
national taste, and partly to practical considerations con- 
nected with magazine publication, the form of literature 
which has seemed of most importance in the last few years 
has been prose fiction, and particularly the short story. It 
has been seen that Poe was the first critic to give the short 
story high rank as an independent literary form; and since 
his day Americans have done much toward its development. 
Some later critics have proposed a hyphenated word, " short- 
story," to denote works which conform to their theories of 
technique — theories many of which are based on or devel- 
oped from those of Poe. The fact that the short story is so 
compact a whole, to be read in a short time, and to be judged 
by its total impression, has been an incentive to revision and 
careful workmanship. The possibility of producing a fin- 
ished piece of prose fiction within the compass of a few thou- 
sand words has led many persons to try their hands at author- 
ship. While the result has been a great mass of mediocre 
work, it is likely that some have discovered their own abili- 
ties who would never have been able to carry through the 
labor of writing a novel. 

There have been hundreds of short-story writers whose 
merits have been sufficient to enable them to appear in the 
better magazines, and it is hard to choose a brief list for 
mention. Those named are not necessarily the most ex- 
cellent, and indeed, since there are so many kinds of short 
stories, relative excellence is hard to determine. Several 
writers already discussed, among them Bret Harte, Thomas 
Bailey Aldrich, Mr. William Dean Howells, and Mr. Henry 
James, continued to write short stories after 1883. Another 
writer of finished short tales was Henry Cuyler Bunner, 
a New York man, for nearly twenty years editor of Ihzvk* 
Many of the best examples of his work were collected into the 



RECENT YEARS 



285 



volumes Zadoc Pine and other Stories, Love in old Cloathes 
and other Stories, and Short Sives. There is a fineness and 
delicacy about his stories, as about his verse and miscellaneous 
writings, and he frequently shows the perception of humor 
which made him the successful editor of a comic paper, 
though he was by no means a newspaper humorist. Fran- 
cis (Frank) R. Stock- 



and 




ton, an original 
whimsical genius, was 
also connected with New 
York periodicals. He 
wrote much — too much 
and too hastily for his 
fame — and he tried both 
short stories and novels. 
The best of the former, 
"The Lady; or the 
Tiger ? " is the most per- 
fect of American hoax 
stories, and is interest- 
ing as a hoax which will 
stand rereading. Some 
of his other tales, such 
as "Negative Gravity" 
and " The Transferred Ghost," show his originality in 
thinking out absurd situations and presenting them so that 
they will seem at least half real. Of his longer stories 
the " Rudder Grange " group has some of the same 
qualities. Stockton, too, had his humor, less winningly 
genial than Bunner's, but of a fascinating and ingenious sort. 
A large number of writers have produced " local color " 
stories — that is, stories in which much attention is given 
to the portrayal of scenes and characters peculiar to a par- 



Frank R. Stockton. 



286 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



ticular section of the country. Sarah Orne Jewett pic- 
tured both in short stories and in novels conditions in rural 
Maine, where she passed her life. She had more sympathy 
with the persons she represented than many authors of local 
color stories, and while her work is less amusing than that 
of an external observer might be, it is more genuine. Joel 
Chandler Harris, of Georgia, created a local color char- 
acter in Uncle Remus, 
an old-time darkey, but 
the tales which Uncle 
Remus tells are not 
based on the author's 
observation, but on the 
folklore of the negro 
race. Harris wrote far 
too fast and too much, 
but his early Uncle Re- 
mus stories are a unique 
and lasting creation. 
The most popular is 
probably " The Wonder- 
ful Tar-Baby Story." 

A great number of 
writers of local color 
stories are still living. Mrs. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 
made her reputation by her portrayal of humble, provincial 
New England life; and though she has since attempted other 
kinds of work, it is probable that she is at her best in such 
tales as "A New England Nun," and "The Revolt of 
Mother." Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia 
University has written some finished sketches, the nature 
of which is indicated by the title of one volume, Vignettes 
of Manhattan. Mr. Richard Harding Davis is the 




Joel Chandler Harris. 



RECENT YEARS 287 

author of a variety of stories, but many of those which 
won him his early reputation picture scenes in New 
York City. Mr. Hamlin Garland has represented graphi- 
cally the monotonous and unlovely life of the farmers of 
the Middle West. The South has been especially favored 
by local color writers. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page has 
pictured the old-time Virginian and the old-time negro in 
charmingly sentimental and romantic tales. Mr. F. Hop- 
kinson Smith has written with more humor and dramatic 
force of certain types of Southern character. Mr. George 
W. Cable found his literary material among the New Or- 
leans Creoles. Miss Mary N. Murfree, who writes as 
" Charles Egbert Craddock," and Mr. James Lane Allen 
have presented different aspects of the life in Tennessee and 
Kentucky. Mr. Owen Wister, though he lives in the East, 
has used literary material from the West and Southwest. 
Indeed, nearly every section of the country where life is 
distinctive or peculiar has been portrayed in fiction. The 
writings of Kate Douglas Wiggin (Mrs. George C. Riggs) 
abound in local color, though the author does not confine 
herself to any one sort of scene. Several of her early tales, 
like The Birds' Christmas Carol and Timothy's Quest are sym- 
pathetic and slightly sentimental stories of child life. The 
scenes of some of her later writings are laid in England. 

Writers of Novels. — While the short story has been the 
favorite form for the tired and hurried reader, and has 
received much attention from the critics, the novel has con- 
tinued to hold its own. Many of the story writers named 
in the preceding paragraphs have written novels; several 
other authors, while they may have attempted short stories, 
are primarily novelists. In New York Paul Leicester 
Ford wrote some clever novels which show careful labor but 
are somewhat lacking in literary finish. His best book is 



288 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



The Honorable Peter Sterling, which while not historical fic- 
tion suggests the life of Grover Cleveland. Janice Meredith 
is a sentimental historical novel of the Revolutionary time. 
A far more finished story-teller was Francis Marion Craw- 
ford, who though descended from old American families 
was born and spent most of his life in Italy. Crawford 
intended that his novels should be read for the pure pleasure 

of the story; but though 
he would be classed as a 
romanticist he was a ro- 
manticist who observed 
closely, who painted his 
backgrounds true to life, 
and whose characters 
always act from reason- 
able motives. He has 
left a long list of clever, 
fascinating stories, 
among the best of which 
are A Cigarette-Maker's 
Romance, and a trilogy 
with the scene laid in 
Rome — Saracinesca, 
Sard' Ilario, and Don 
Orsino. Edward Noyes Westcott, of New York State, 
left one clever and carefully executed study of character, 
David II arum. Frank Norris, in The Octopus and The 
Pit, showed the tendency to treat economic evils in novels. 
In studying these recent developments and experiments in 
fiction one must not forget that much of the work of Mr. 
Howells and Mr. James has been done since 1883. 

During the last two or three decades there has appeared 
a large number of novels each of which has taken a place in 




F. Marion Crawford. 



RECENT YEARS 289 

the list of the " ten best sellers," and then been pushed aside 
by later favorites. About the close of the century many of 
these were historical fiction ; of late many of them are studies 
of social and economic problems ; and there are always some 
not readily classified. Most of them show a tendency toward 
realism, though there have been a few notable exceptions. 
All of these novels have some literary merit, and possibly 
the verdict of time may give some of them a sure place on 
the library shelves, but as yet this is in no instance certain. 

To mention any of the living novelists is to invite indig- 
nant protest because others are omitted. Among those 
who combine literary finish and creative imagination with 
the qualities that make for popularity is Mr. Winston 
Churchill. Mr. Churchill's novels Richard Carvel, The 
Crossing, and The Crisis are historical, and some of his more 
recent work shows a tendency to discuss present-day prob- 
lems. To Have and To Hold, by Miss Mary Johnston, is 
another of the historical novels which was widely read when 
it first appeared. Mrs. Margaret Wade Deland might 
have been listed with the writers of short stories, but it was 
by her novel John Ward, Preacher that she first became 
known. Mrs. Edith Wharton is the author of earnest 
and finished novels, the best to date probably being The 
House of Mirth. In The Common Lot and other novels 
Professor Robert Herrick of the University of Chicago 
studies men and women as they are affected by the artifi- 
ciality and complexity of modern life. 

Writers of Verse. — There has been no "school" of Amer- 
ican poets during the last thirty years, and the sporadic 
verse of various authors has been somewhat hesitating and 
uncertain. The tendency has been to produce brief rather 
than long poems. Probably the American poets of the ear- 
lier time who have most influenced their followers are Em- 



290 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

erson and Whitman, though the manner of the latter has 
not often been really imitated. In contrast, however, to 
the freedom for which these poets stand have been various 
attempts at the finished and conventional forms known as 
" society verse." The light and charming poems of Henry 
Cuyler Bunner, already mentioned, are of this class. 

Richard Hovey, a native of Illinois and at the time of 
his early death a professor in Barnard College, New York, 
wrote some ambitious poems, chief of which is Launcelot 
and Guenevere, " a poem in dramas," in four parts. This 
shows immaturity, but it also shows energy and poetic en- 
thusiasm, and no small skill in verse, and when it was pub- 
lished seemed a promise of better things to come. Some of 
Hovey's lyrics, a number of which were published jointly 
with his friend Mr. Bliss Carmen in Songs from Vagabondia, 
and his political " Unmanifest Destiny " are among the best 
short poems of the last decade of the last century. Another 
poet who died too soon to fulfill his promise was William 
Vaughn Moody, a Harvard graduate, and for some years 
a member of the faculty of the University of Chicago. His 
poems, the best of which is the " Ode in Time of Hesitation," 
have both power and melody, and occasionally he rises to 
heights rarely attained in recent years. During the latter 
part of his brief career he turned to dramatic writing, and 
produced two successful stage plays, The Great Divide and 
The Faith Healer. Paul L. Dunbar, a negro writer living 
in Ohio, also died at the early age of thirty-four. His power 
was far less than that of Hovey and Moody, as his oppor- 
tunities were less, but his poems show talent and attracted 
much attention because of the general interest in the intel- 
lectual development of the negro race. 

Emily Dickinson, who really wrote in the earlier period, 
but whose poems were not published until after her death 



RECENT YEARS 291 

in 1886, lived a retired life at Amherst, Massachusetts. Her 
poems are all short, and are notable for their terseness and 
pointedness of expression. Most of them are comments on 
life and on her own emotional experiences. Richard Wat- 
son Gilder, long an editor of the Century Magazine, was 
the author of many finished poems, a few of which show his 
interest in social reforms. Father John B. Tabb, of Mary- 
land, wrote many sonnets and brief poems with fine emo- 
tional quality and great perfection of form. 

Few of the living writers of verse can be discussed here. 
No doubt the most widely read is Mr. James Whitcomb 
Riley, of Indiana. Mr. Riley's sentimental and moralizing 
poems of everyday life have some of the weaker qualities 
that helped to make Longfellow's work popular, but they 
show a lack of calm dignity and a striving after effect of 
which the older poet was never guilty. The Reverend 
Henry Van Dyke, formerly pastor of a New York City 
church and later professor in Princeton University, writes 
smooth verse, much of it expressing his appreciation of 
nature. Miss Edith Thomas, of Ohio, has written many 
restrained short poems. Mr. Madison J. Cawein, of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, is the author of a great quantity of verse, 
the best part of which is lyrics descriptive of nature and of 
Southern scenes. The sensitive and restrained poems of 
Professor George E. Woodberry appeal to a limited 
group of readers, but many critics place him in the first rank 
of living American poets. 

Writers of Prose Essays. — The growth of magazines has 
led to the development of a great number of prose essayists 
who write clearly and entertainingly. The last few years 
have evolved a new form of magazine writing in which polit- 
ical, economic, and social questions are expounded with a 
graphic clearness, and solutions are presented with a plausibil- 



292 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ity heretofore rare in such discussion. Many of the writers 
of such articles received their original training as newspaper 
men, and their devices of style and arrangement are evolved 
and refined from the practices of the journalist. In state- 
ment of fact they are likely, while always adhering to literal 
truth, to sacrifice accuracy to picturesqueness, 1 and in style 
they regard attractiveness and the appearance of frankness 
before all other qualities. Whether this type of essay will 
develop into a new literary form remains to be seen ; but those 
who have so far written it are likely to pay for their immediate 
popularity by being forgotten in the near future. Besides 
these essayists there have been many others who appeal to 
the general public in various ways, and still others who have 
addressed themselves to a more restricted class of readers. 

Eugene Field can best be considered among the essayists, 
though he wrote both fiction and verse. A native of St. 
Louis, he was all his life connected with Western newspapers, 
and his last and best work was done in Chicago. Here he 
edited in the Daily News, afterwards the Record, a column 
in which he discussed not only men and events of the day, 
but books and literature, ancient and modern. His point 
of view and his manner of presentation were individual, but 
he had genuine appreciation for some of the good and es- 
pecially for some of the curious things in literature, and he 

1 Tt was this fact that caused the term "muck-rakers" to be 
applied to some writers of this class. These men knew from their 
journalistic experience that readers in general are more likely to be 
impressed by the bad than by the good in an institution, particularly 
if the institution is an unpopular one. Therefore, while they always 
stated things so that they could not be accused of deliberate untruth, 
and while they always affected perfect fairness, they skillfully gave 
the impression that things were worse than they are. On the other 
hand, those who favor some particular remedy for social ills always 
succeed in creating the belief that conditions are ideal where their 
pet reforms have been adopted. 



RECENT YEARS 



293 



succeeded in bringing these to the attention of the man in 
the street as no professional critic could have done. One of 
his favorite authors was Horace, and he published a series 
of translations which seem a trifle flippant to the classical 
scholar, but which remind one as school editions do not that 
the old Roman was a very live and a very natural sort of 
man. Field's prose tales, 
light poems, and songs 
for and about children 
have been very popular; 
but he is perhaps most 
significant for his at- 
tempts to find in classic 
literature something that 
would appeal to the 
average reader, and to 
present this through the 
medium of a daily paper. 
Lafcadio Hearn was 
an international figure, 
who hardly belongs to 
any one land, but who 
had most associations 
with America. He was 
born in Greece, the son 
of an Irish army officer 

and a Greek mother; was educated in part in Paris, lived 
for twenty years in America, and for the last fourteen 
years of his life in Japan. In America he was connected 
with newspapers in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and New York, 
and he wrote tales and sketches which are characterized by 
remarkably luxurious and moving passages of description. 
After he went to Japan he wrote on the life, art, and philos- 




Eugene Field. 



294 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ophy of the Japanese, who credit him with having understood 
their civilization better than any other Westerner has done. 
His later essays, while somewhat more restrained than the 
early work, show the same richness and emotional quality 
of style. 

Among living essayists are Mr. Samuel McChord 
Crothers, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose informal 
manner sometimes remotely suggests that of Charles Lamb; 
and Miss Agnes Repplier, of Philadelphia, who discusses 
varied topics in a way that is always individual and enter- 
taining. The list of those who deal especially with literary 
matters includes Professor George E. Woodberry, and 
Professor Brander Matthews, both of whom have been 
mentioned for their creative work, and Mr. Paul Elmer 
More, for some time editor of the New York Nation. More 
popular in method are Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie and the 
Reverend Henry Van Dyke, the latter already mentioned 
as a writer of verse. One form of essay which has had much 
vogue is that which presents the results of sympathetic 
observation of nature. The most notable recent writer of 
this sort of prose is Mr. John Burroughs. 

Humorists. — The West has continued to produce popu- 
lar humorists, few if any of whom are sure of enduring repu- 
tations. Mr. George Ade, who has occasionally shown 
keen insight into life and graphic descriptive power in the 
midst of much cheap and superficial work, and Mr. Peter 
Dunne, whose " Mr. Dooley " papers rank as our best 
recent political satire, both began their careers as Chicago 
newspaper men. 

Conclusion 

It has been the purpose of the preceding study to trace 
the development of literary writing in America, viewing it so 



RECENT YEARS 295 

far as possible as the expression of American life. The 
student has seen the beginnings made by the first English 
immigrants, and has noticed how from the first writings in the 
separate colonies developed groups or schools which retained 
some of their peculiarities until comparatively recent years. 
He has seen how each of these groups was influenced by the 
national idea, first during the Revolutionary period, then 
during the first few generations of constitutional government; 
and how, after the fierce struggle of the Civil War, provincial 
differences disappeared and American literature became 
national, reflecting the life and feelings of all sections of the 
country, but without sectionalism. He has seen how the 
older ideals of American life culminated, so far as literary 
expression was concerned, in the distinguished group of 
writers who flourished in the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury; and he has observed that at the present time literature, 
though varied and interesting in its manifestations, is rep- 
resented by no very distinguished names. Predictions as 
to the future are impossible; but the student of this book 
may be reasonably sure that within his normal lifetime will 
come new achievements, and developments perhaps even yet 
undreamed of. These, whatever they are, will have their 
roots in the past, and will express the national life of the 
future. It should be the part of the intelligent American to 
be on the alert for new writers and new tendencies, to wel- 
come eagerly the good as it appears, yet to guard against the 
sudden enthusiasm which often bestows on the latest fad 
praise that soon seems ridiculous. It is to be hoped that the 
preceding survey may help, not only to a better understand- 
ing of the masters who have already written but to an ap- 
preciation of the value and significance of any who may 
follow. 



296 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



READINGS AND TOPICS 

General Suggestions. — The student should remember that he 
reads many of the writings of this time, not because of their great 
literary merit, but because they express the spirit and the tendencies 
of the day. He should also remember that the authors referred 
to in the lists which follow are not necessarily the most important, 
and that the works suggested for reading are not necessarily the 
best productions of their respective authors. 

The best source for concise biographical information regarding 
living writers is the latest edition of Who's Who in America. See 
also, Vedder, American Writers of To-Day, Cooper, Some American 
Story-Tellers, Rittenhouse, Younger American Poets, Sladen, 
Younger American Poets, and consult the Readers' Guide to Periodi- 
cal Literature for references to articles in the periodicals. 

Suggestions for Reading. — The student who is not already familiar 
with the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, The Century Maga- 
zine, Scribner's Magazine, and some of the better magazines sold at 
lower prices should learn so far as he can by inspection the chief 
characteristics of each. 

Representative short stories by Bunner are to be found in the 
volumes Short Sixes, Love in Old Cloathes. From Stockton, read 
"The Lady; or the Tiger?" Other clever and distinctive short 
stories of Stockton are "The Transferred Ghost," "A Tale of 
Negative Gravity." Rudder Grange is representative of his longer 
stories. Good stories by Miss Jewett are to be found in the vol- 
umes A White Heron and other Stories, Tales of New England, e.g., 
"A White Heron," "The Dulham Ladies." See also, The Country 
of the Pointed Firs. Among the most popular of Kate Douglas 
Wiggins's stories are The Birds' Christmas Carol, Timothy's Quest, 
A Cathedral Courtship, Penelope's Progress. Richard Harding 
Davis's stories are well represented in the volumes Gallegher and 
Other Stories, Van Bibber and Others. Among those that might be 
suggested for reading are "Gallegher," "Her First Appearance," 
"The Bar Sinister." Any of the earlier Uncle Remus sketches are 
good. "The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story" is perhaps the favorite. 
Representatives of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's distinctive work 
may be found in A New England Nun and Other Stories, The Wind 



RECENT YEARS 297 

titles are: "A New England Nun," "The Revolt of Mother," 
"The Wind in the Rose-Bush," "The South- West Chamber." 
The student can make his own selection from Matthews's Vignettes 
of Manhattan. Page may be judged by "Mars Chan," and "Meh 
Lady," and other tales in the volume In Ole Virginia, and from 
Red Rock. From Cable's sketches in Old Creole Days may be 
chosen "Posson Jone," "Jean-ah Poqulin." Of Cable's novels 
The Grandissirnes has been best received. For the work of Mary 
N. Murfree see the volume, In the Tennessee Mountains; and for 
James Lane Allen, The Blue Grass Region and other sketches of 
Kentucky, Flute and Violin, and for a sample of his longer fiction, 
The Kentucky Cardinal. Representative of Owen Wister are "Phi- 
losophy Four," and, as a longer work, The Virginian. Much of 
Hamlin Garland's best work may be judged from the tales in 
Main Travelled Roads, e.g., "Up the Coolly," "Among the Corn- 
Rows," "The Return of a Private." 

Among the better romances of Crawford are Saracinesca, Sant' 
Ilario, Don Orsino, A Cigarette-Maker' s Romance. 

The study of lesser living novelists and their work should not 
form an important part of a course in American literature, but the 
following partial list of works that have attracted attention in 
recent years may be useful for reference : F. Hopkinson Smith, 
Col. Carter of Cartersville; Winston Churchill, Richard Carvel, 
The Crossing, The Crisis; Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth; 
Mrs. Margaret Deland, John Ward, Preacher, Old Chester Tales 
(short stories) ; Mary Johnston, To Have and to Hold; Frank Norris, 
The Pit, The Octopus. 

Much of Bunner's most successful verse may be found in the 
collection Airs from Arcady, e.g., "The Way to Arcady," "Da 
Capo," "One, Two, Three," "An Old Song." Representative poems 
of Richard Hovey are "Unmanifest Destiny," "Love in the Winds," 
" The Wander-Lovers." From Moody the student should read 
"Ode in Time of Hesitation," "On a Soldier Fallen in the Philip- 
pines," "Gloucester Moors"; from Emily Dickinson, "Parting," 
"Autumn," "Fringed Gentian," "Chartless," "Heart, we will forget 
him," "The Railway Train," "Vanished." Field's work may be 
represented by "Little Boy Blue," "Dutch Lullaby," "The Hush- 
a-bye Lady," "The Singing in God's Acre," "The Truth about 
Horace," "Dibdin's Ghost," "Just 'fore Christinas" ; and his prose 



298 AMERICAN LITERATURE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

fiction may be seen in A Little Book of Profitable Tales. A few of 
Gilder's better brief pieces are "Ode," "The Sonnet," "The Heroic 
Age." 

Among the verses of James Whitcomb Riley that have had 
greatest popular vogue are "A Life Lesson," "Away," "Knee Deep 
in June," "Nothin' to Say," "An Old Sweetheart of Mine," "Little 
Orphant Annie," "When the Frost is on the Punkin," "The Old 
Man and Jim," "The Raggedy Man," "Old Aunt Mary's," 
"Kissing the Rod," "Our Kind of a Man." Selections from the 
Reverend Henry Van Dyke's poems may be found in The Van Dyke 
Book. The poems of Madison J. Cawein may be judged from a 
selected volume compiled by the author with an introduction by 
W. D. Howells. 

Lafcadio Hearn's early manner may be judged from his tale 
Chita, a Memory of Lost Island, and his later work from selections 
from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, or others of the volumes written 
after his removal to the Far East. 

The student should make his own choice from the writings of the 
essayists, taking into consideration the subjects treated and the 
kind of essay he enjoys. Professor Matthews has published several 
volumes of essays, but can perhaps be seen to best advantage in 
The American of the Future and Other Essays, Gateways to Litera- 
ture and Other Essays. Some oi Professor Van Dyke's essays are 
collected in the volume, Essays in Application. Some of Mabie's 
many critical essays may be found in My Study Fire, Essays in 
Literary Interpretation. Miss Agnes Repplier has published Books 
and Men, Points of View, Essays in Idleness. Burroughs's com- 
ments on nature and on literature may be found in such volumes as 
Wake Robin, Indoor Studies, Birds and Poets. S. M. Crothers is 
at his best in The Gentle Reader. Paul Elmer More is the author 
of the Shelburne Essays. Robert Grant writes informally in Re- 
flections of a Married Man, The Art of Living; and employs some- 
what of the same vein in his novel The Chippendales. 

Suggestions for Papers and Topics. — The most valuable topics 
on the recent times, those which discuss general movements and 
tendencies, are likely to call for more reading and consideration 
than the student can give. Comparisons may be made between 
recent writers and their predecessors in the same fields, but these 
will suggest themselves so readily that they need not be pointed 



RECENT YEARS 299 

out here. A comparison between two or more of the better maga- 
zines as regards relative proportions of articles of different kinds, 
etc., would be valuable (should be based on not less than one full 
year of each). 

Suggested topics on writers of fiction : Bunner's humor ; Stock- 
ton's use of the hoax (Compare "The Lady; or the Tiger?" with 
"Marjorie Daw"); Local color stories of New England, of New 
York, of the different regions of the South and the West ; The use 
of dialect in local color short stories ; The treatment of the super- 
natural by recent writers. 

Suggested topics on writers of verse : Striking recent poems and 
the earlier poems they suggest; The popular element in Field's 
and Riley's work ; Recent poems of patriotism. 









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INDEX 



Abbott, Jacob, 205. 

Abolitionism, sec Anti-slavery move- 
ment. 

Abolitionists, New England, 147-171. 

"Adams and Liberty," 55. 

Adams, John, 52, 56, 8C. 

Adams, John Quincy, 115 n. 

Adams, Samuel, 52, 80. 

Addison, influence of, 36, 56. 

Ade, George, 294. 

"Adulator," 53. 

Adventures of Captain Bonneville, 95. 

"After the Burial," 159 n. 

Age of Reason, 55 n., 64. 

Airs from Arcady, 297. 

"Al Aaraaf," 242. 

Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and other 
Poems, 236. 

Alcott, A. B., 146-147, 1S5, 204, 266, 
270-271. 

Alcott, Louisa M., 147 n., 204-205, 
269, 273. 

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 220, 222- 
224, 231, 274, 276, 284. 

Alhambra, 94, 95, 97, 124, 126. 

Allen, James Lane, 297. 

American, 229 n., 230 n. 

American Anthology, 222. 

American Claimant, 256 n. 

Among my Books, 165 n. 

Anarchiad, 60, 81. 

Ancestral Footstep, 189 n. 

"Annabel Lee," 242, 243. 

Anthology Club, 115. 

Anti-slavery movement, 132, 147. 

"Arrow and the Song," 180. 

"Artemus Ward," see Browne, 
Charles F. 

Arthur Mervyn, 68. 

Art of Living, 298. 



Astoria, 95. 

As We were Saying, 269. 

Atlantic Monthly, 131, 159, 167. 

"Auf Wiedersehen," 159 n. 

Autobiography, Franklin's, 37, 39, 40, 

41, 48, 49, 97. 
Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 196, 

197, 199, 200, 202 n., 269, 272. 

Backwoodsman, 112. 

Bacon's Rebellion, 12. 

"Bagatelles," 40. 

"Ballad of Trees and the Master," 

249. 
Bancroft, George, 29, 86, 206, 207, 

269. 
"Banker poet," see Stedman, E. C. 
"Barefoot Boy," 150. 
Barlow, Joel, 55, 59-60, 6i, 81, 83. 
"Bar Sinister," 296. 
"Battle Hymn of the Republic," 211, 

270. 
"Battle of the Kegs," 65, 72. 
Bay Psalm Book, 24, 45, 46. 
"Beaver Brook," 161. 
"Bedouin Love Song," 232. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 225-226, 274, 

276. 
Being a Boy, 269. 
"Bells," 242 n., 243. 
Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ, 252- 

253, 280. 
Between the Dark and the Daylight, 

228 n., 275. 
Bible, influence of, 16, 24. 
Biglow Papers, 83, 159, 160, 162-165, 

168, 202 n., 267, 271. 
"Bill and Joe," 199. 
" Birdofreedom Sawin," 163. 
Birds and Poets, 298. 



331 



332 



INDEX 



Birds' Christmas Carol, 287, 296. 
"Birthmark," 190 n., 191 n. 
"Black Cat," 143. 
Blithedale Romance, 188, 193-194, 

266. 
Blue Grass Region and other Sketches 

of Kentucky, 297. 
"Bohemians," 220. 
Boker, George H., 233, 275, 276. 
Books and Men, 298. 
Boston, 130 ; literary environs of, 

270 ; see New England, Massa- 
chusetts. 
"Boys," 199. 
Bracebridge Hall, 92-93, 97, 121 n., 

124, 126. 
Brackenridge, Henry M., 250 n. 
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, 67, 81- 

82. 
Bradford, William, 17, 18, 19 n., 23, 

29, 45, 46, 47, 48. 
Bradstreet, Anne, 24-25, 46. 
"Brahma," 140. 
Breadwinners, 253. 
"Breakfast-Table series," 197, 199- 

200. 
Brook Farm, 133, 147 n., 184, 266. 
"Broomstick Train," 199. 
Brown, Charles Brockden, 68-69, 77, 

79, 82, 104. 
Browne, Charles Farrar, 209, 258, 

269, 273. 
Brownson, Orestes A., 141 n. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 61, 83, 87, 

105-109, 123, 125, 126-127, 178 n. 
"Building of the Ship," 181. 
Bunner, Henry Cuyler, 284-285, 290, 

296, 297, 299. 
Burroughs, John, 294, 298. 
Burwell Papers, 12, 13, 44-45. 
Butler, Samuel, influence of, 12, 36. 
Byrd, William, 13, 44, 45, 73, 79 n. 

Cable, George W., 287, 297. 

Calhoun, John C, 119, 127. 

California and Oregon Trail, 208, 269, 
273. 

Cambridge in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, 130, 270. 



"Cambridge Thirty Years Ago," 166. 

Cape Cod, 144 n., 266. 

Carey, William, 67. 

Carmen, Bliss, 290. 

Cary, Alice, 230, 275. 

Gary, Pheebe, 230, 275. 
'Cask of Amontillado," 241. 

Castilian Days, 253, 279. 

Cathedral Courtship, 296. 

Cawein, Madison J., 291, 298. 

Celebrated Jumping Frog, 256 n. 

Century of Dishonor, 262 n. 

"Chambered Nautilus," 199. 

Chance Acquaintance, 228 n. 

"Changeling," 159 n., 160. 

Charming, William Ellery, 115-116. 

Channing, William Ellery (2d), 
141 n. 

"Charles Egbert Craddock," see 
Murfree, Mary N. 

Charlotte Temple, 53-54. 

Child, Lydia Maria, 116. 

Chippendales, 298. 

Chita, a Memory of Lost Island, 298. 

Choate, Rufus, 208, 252, 269. 

Christus, a Mystery, 178. 

Chronological Tables, 301. 

Churchill, Winston, 289, 297. 

Cigarette-Maker' s Romance, 288. 

Circuit Rider, 252, 279. 

Clara Howard, 68. 

Clari, the Maid of Milan, 111. 

Clarke, James Freeman, 141 n. 

Clay, Henry, 119, 127. 

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, see 
"Mark Twain." 

"Cleopatra," 204 n. 

Cobbett, William, 66-67. 

Colonel Carter of Cartersville, 2! (7. 

Colonial Period of American Litera- 
ture, 1, 3-49. 

"Columbia," 57, 72. 

Columbiad, 59, 60, 61, 81, 83. 

"Columbus," 261. 

Common Lot, 289. 

Common Sense, 63, 64, 81. 

Concord in the Nineteenth Century, 
130, 270. 

Condensed A T ovels, 260. 



INDEX 



333 



Connecticut, see New England. 
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's 

Court, 279, 256 n., 257. 
"Conquered Banner," 247. 
Conquest of Canaan, 58, 61, 81, 85 n. 
Conquest of Granada, 94, 97, 124, 125. 
Conquest of Mexico, 207 n. 
Conquest of Peru, 207 n. 
Conspiracy of Pontiac, 208 n., 269. 
Cook, Ebenezer, 12, 79 n. 
Cooke, John Esten, 246-247, 277, 

278. 
Cooke, Philip Pendleton, 246-247. 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 85 n., 87, 

99-105, 109, 122, 123, 125, 126, 

127, 228, 245, 262. 
Coplas de Manrique, 175. 
"Corn," 248. 

Cotton, John, 21, 30, 45, 46. 
Country of the Pointed Firs, 296. 
"Courtin'," 163-164 n. 
Courtship of Miles Sta7idish, 177. 
"Craddock, Charles Egbert," see 

Murfree, Mary N. 
Craigie House, 174. 
Cranch, Christopher P., 141 n. 
Crawford, Francis Marion, 288, 297. 
Crisis (Churchill), 289, 297. 
Crisis (Paine), 63, 64, 81. 
Criticism and Fiction, 228 n. 
Croaker Poems, 109. 
Crossing, 289, 297. 

Crothers, Samuel McChord, 294, 298. 
Culprit Fay, 110. 
Curtis, George William, 133 n., 224- 

225, 274, 276. 

Daisy Miller, 229 n., 230 n. 
Dana, Charles A., 133 n. 
Dana, Richard Henry, 116, 127. 
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 211-212, 

270, 273. 
David Harum, 288. 
Davis, R. H., 286-287, 296. 
Day of Doom, 25-26, 47. 
"Deacon's Masterpiece," 199. 
Declaration of Independence, 39, 65, 

73. 74-75, 78, 82, 83. 
Deerslayer, 101. 



Deland, Margaret Wade, 289, 297. 

"Democratic Vistas," 214. 

Dennie, Joseph, 119. 

"Descent into the Maelstrom," 241. 

Dial, 133, 146, 147. 

"Diamond Lens," 220 n. 

Dickinson, Emily, 290-291, 297. 

Dickinson, John, 65. 

Divine Tragedy, 178. 

Dr. Grimshaw's Secret, 189 n. 

" Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," 190 n. 

Dolliver Romance, 189. 

Don Orsino, 288. 

"Dooley, Mr.," see Dunne, Peter. 

Drake, Joseph Rodman, 87, 109, 

110-111, 125, 126. 
Drama in early times, 54, 62, 79. 
Dream Life, 206. 
Dunbar, Paul N., 290. 
Dunlap, William, 62, 79, 81. 
Dunne, Peter, 294. 
"Dupin," 241. 
Dutchman's Fireside, 112. 
Dwight, Timothy, 55, 57-58, 60, 61, 

81, 83. 

"Easy Chair" in Harper's Monthly, 
225. 

Echo, 60, 81. 

Edgar Huntley, 68. 

Education in Southern colonies, 10- 
11 ; in New England colonies, 42. 

Edwards, Jonathan, 34-35, 47, 48. 

Eggleston, Edward, 252, 279, 280. 

Eight Cousins, 205. 

Elevator, 228 n. 

Elizabethan influence on American 
Literature, 4-5, 15. 

Elmwood, 157, 159. 

Elsie Venner, 197, 200, 269. 

Embargo, 105. 

Emerson, 129-130 n., 131 n., 133- 
141, 142, 143, 144, 146 n., 147, 161, 
202, 208, 216 n., 221, 266, 270. 

English criticisms of American writ- 
ings, 84—85. 

English Traits, 134. 

Essay for the Recording of Illustrious 
Providences, 32, 48. 



334 



INDEX 



Essays in Application, 298. 

Essays in Idleness, 298. 

"Eternal Goodness," 156 n. 

"Ethan Brand," 191 n. 

Europeans, 229 n. 

Evangeline, 177, 179, 180. 

Everett, Edward, 86, 115 n., US, 

127, 208, 252. 
Excursions, 144 n. 

Fable for Critics, 159, 161, 165, 244 n. 
Fair God, 253. 
Faith Healer, 290. 

"Fall of the House of Usher," 240. 
Famous Old People, 188. 
"Fanny," 110. 
Fanshawe, 185. 

"Father Abraham's Address," 39. 
Faust, Taylor's translation, 232, 233. 
Federalist, 62, 78, 81, 83. 
Ferdinand and Isabella, 207 n. 
Field, Eugene, 292-293, 297-298, 299. 
Fields, James T., 155 n., 188, 203, 269. 
Fireside Travels, 166, 167 n. 
Fiske, John, 206. 
Flint, Timothy, 121 n. 
"Florence Vane," 247. 
Flute and Violin, 297. 
Folger, Peter, 26-27, 46. 
Following the Equator, 256 n. 
Ford, Paul Leicester, 287-288. 
Foregone Conclusion, 228 n. 
Foster, Stephen C, 250, 279-280. 
Francesco, da Rimini, 233, 275, 276. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 36-41, 48, 49, 

62, 79, 83, 119, 251. 
Freedom of the Will, Treatise on, 35. 
Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins, 286, 296. 
Freneau, Philip, 69, 77, 79, 82, 83. 
"Friendship," 266. 
Froissart Ballads and other Poems, 

246-247. 
Fruitlands, 147 n., 271. 
Fuller, Margaret, 133 n., 145-146, 

266, 270-271. 

Gabriel Conroy, 260. 
Gallagher, William D., 250 n. 
Gallagher and other Stories, 296. 



Garland, Hamlin, 287, 297. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 148-150, 
151, 152, 266, 271. 

Gateways to Literature and other 
Essays, 298. 

Gentle Reader, 298. 

German influence on American educa- 
tion, 86, 131. 

"Gettysburg Address," 251. 

Gilded Age, 206, 256 n. 

Gilder, Richard Watson, 291. 

Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, 298. 

Godfrey, Thomas, 41, 48-49. 

"Gold-Bug," 241. 

Golden Legend, 178. 

"Good W T ord for Winter," 267. 

Goodrich, S. G., 113-114, 185, 186. 

Grandfather's Chair, 188, 268. 

Grandissemes, 297. 

Grant, Robert, 298. 

"Gray Champion," 190 n. 

Gray Days and Gold, 273. 

Great Awakening, 35. 

Great Divide, 290. 

Greatest achievement, period of, 2, 
128-280. 

Greenfield Hill, 58, 81, 83. 

Green Mountain Boys, 212, 270. 

Griswold, Rufus W., 237 n. 

"Group," 53. 

Guardian Angel, 197, 200, 201, 269. 

Hale, Edward Everett, 209-210, 269, 

273. 
"Hale in the Bush," 72. 
Half-Century of Conflict, 208 n. 
Hall, James, 121 n. 
Halleck, FitzGreene, 87, 109-110, 

125, 126. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 61-62, 79, 81, 

82. 
Harris, Joel Chandler, 286, 296. 
Harte, Bret, 259-261, 279, 280, 284. 
Hartford Wits, 55-61, 67, 78, 79, 81, 

83, 87, 113. 
Harvard College, founding of, 16. 
"Harvard Commemoration Ode," 

162. 
"Harvey Birch," 104, 126. 



INDEX 



335 



Hasty Pudding, 59, 81. 
Hathorne, see Hawthorne. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 19 n., 68, 126, 

129-130 n., 133 n., 146 n., 161, 171, 

182-195, 202, 203 n., 268, 272. 
Hay, John, 253, 279, 280. 
Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 244, 245- 

246, 277, 278. 
Hazard of New Fortunes, 228 n. 
Hearn, Lafcadio, 293-294, 298. 
"Hearts of Oak," 72. 
"Heathen Chinee," 260 n. 
Henry, Patrick, 75, 78, 82, 83. 
"Her Letter," 260. 
Herrick, Robert, 289. 
"H. H.," see Jackson, Helen Hunt. 
Hiawatha, 177, 179, 268. 
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 209- 

210, 270. 
Historical Writings in Early New 

England, 17-19, 27-30. 
History of the Dividing Line, 13. 
Hobomok, 116. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 129-130 n., 

131 n., 171, 195-202, 208, 209, 211, 

226, 258, 268-269, 272. 
"Home, Sweet Home," 111, 112. 
"Homer Wilbur," 163. 
Honorable Peter Sterling, 288. 
Hooker, Thomas, 21, 45, 46. 
Hoosier Schoolmaster, 252, 279. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 65-66, 81-82, 83. 
Horseshoe Robinson, 120. 
"Hosea Biglow," 163, 164. 
House of Mirth, 289, 297. 
"House of Night," 70. 
House of the Seven Gables, 188, 192- 

193. 
Hovey, Richard, 290, 297. 
Howadji in Syria, 225. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 211. 
Howells, William Dean, 226-22N, 

229, 230, 265 n., 274-275, 276, 284, 

288. 
Huckleberry Finn, 256, 257, 258, 279. 
Hudibras, influence of, 12, 56, 57. 
"Hunters of Men," 154. 
Hutchinson, Thomas, 29. 
Hyperion, 175, 176. 



"Ichabod," 154. 

"Ik Marvel," see Mitchell, Donald G. 

Impressions and Experiences, 275. 

Inchiquin Letters, 119. 

Indiana Writers, 252-253 ; see West. 

Indians, early writings about, 27-29. 

Indoor Studies, 298. 

Ingersoll, Charles Jared, 119. 

Innocents Abroad, 254, 256, 257, 279. 

In Ole Virginia, 297. 

"In School-Days," 153, 155. 

"Interludes," 224. 

International Episode, 229 n., 230 n. 

In the Tennessee Mountains, 297. 

Irving, Washington, 85 n., 87-99, 

109, 122, 123, 124-125, 126, 190, 

202, 258, 262. 
"Irving region" of the Hudson, 126. 
"Israfel," 243." 
Italian Journeys, 227. 

Jack Hazard series, 205 n. 

Jackson, Helen Hunt, 262, 279, 280. 

James, Henry, 229-230, 275, 276, 

284, 288. 
James Russell Lowell and his Friends, 
. 270. 

Jane Talbot, 68. 
Janice Meredith, 288. 
Jay, John, 62. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 73-75, 82. 
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 286, 296. 
"Jim Bludso," 253. 
Joan of Arc, 257, 279. 
"Joaquin Miller," see Miller, Cin- 

cinnatus Hiner. 
John Bull and Brother Jonathan, 112. 
Johnston, Mary, 289, 297. 
John Ward, Preacher, 289, 297. 
"Jonathan Oldstyle," 89. 
"Josh Billings," see Shaw, Henry W. 
Justice and Expediency, 152. 

Kavanagh, 176. 

Kennedy, John Pendleton, 120-121, 

127. 
Kentucky Cardinal, 297. 
Key, Francis Scott, 121. 



336 



INDEX 



"Knickerbocker" Period, 1, 84-127. 
Knickerbocker Writers, 87-112, 122- 

123, 124-126. 
Knickerbocker's History of New York, 

87 n., 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 124. 
Koningsmarke, the Long Finne, 1 12. 

Lady of the Aroostook, 228 n. 
"Lady; or the Tiger?" 285,296. 
Lanier, Sidney, 247-249, 264, 277, 

278. 
"Last Leaf," 197, 198-199. 
Last of the Mohicans, 101, 104 n., 125, 

126. 
Launcelot and Guenevere, 290. 
Lay Preacher, 119. 
Lazarus, Emma, 231, 275. 
Leather Stocking and Silk, 247. 
Leatherstocking Tales, 100, 101, 125, 

126. 
Leaves of Grass, 214-219. 
"Lesson of the Master," 230 n. 
Letters of a British Spy, 120 n. 
Liberator, 148. 
"Liberty Song," 72. 
Liberty Tree, 188. 
Life of Columbus, 94. 
Life on the Mississippi, 256 n., 257, 

279. 
"Ligeia," 241. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 127, 250-252, 

279, 280. 
Linwoods, 116. 
Literature and Life, 275. 
"Little Annie's Ramble," 190. 
Little Book of Profitable Tales, 298. 
"Little Breeches," 253. 
Little Women, 205. 
Local color stories, 285-287. 
Logan, 118. 
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 61, 

129-130 n., 139 n., 159, 171-182, 

188 n., 202, 219, 221, 239 n., 267- 

268, 271-272, 291. 
" Looking-Glass for the Times," 26. 
Love in Old Cloathes and other Stories, 

285, 296. 
Lowell, James Russell, 130 n., 131, 

146 n., 148, 156-168, 175 n., 198 n., 



202, 203, 208, 209, 221, 226. 244. 

258, 287, 271. 
"Luck of Roaring Camp," 259. 
Lyceum, 131. 

Mabie, Hamilton W., 294, 298. 
McFingal, 57, 60, 81, 83. 
Madison, James, 62. 
"Madonna of the Future," 230 n. 
Magazines, 212 n. ; present tenden- 
cies in, 283. 
Magnolia Christi Americana, 32. 
Maine Woods, 144 n., 266. 
Main Travelled Roads, 297. 
"Man without a Country," 210, 269, 

273. 
Map of Virginia, 8. 
Marble Faun, 188, 194. 
"Marco Bozzaris," 110. 
"Margaret Smith's Journal," 156. 
"Marjory Daw," 223. 
"Mark Twain," 206, 254-259, 279, 

280. 
"Mars Chan," 297. 
Marshall, John, 120. 
"Marshes of Glynn," 249. 
"Masque of the Gods," 232. 
Massachusetts, see New England. 
Massachusetts Bay, 14. 
"Massachusetts to Virginia," 154. 
Mather, Cotton, 30-34, 47, 48. 
Mather, Increase, 28, 30-34, 47, 48. 
Matthews, Brander, 286, 294, 297, 

298. 
"Maud Muller," 155. 
"May-Day," 140. 
"Meh Lady," 297. 
Mellicharnpe, 245. 
Melville, Herman, 226, 274, 276. 
Michael Angela, 17£. 
Middle region, writings in, 36-41, 43, 

48-49, 61-73, 79, 81-112, 119, 212- 

233, 273-276. 
Miles Standish, 178-179. 
Miller, Cincinnatus Hiner, 261, 279. 
"Minister's Black Veil," 190 n. 
Ministers in Early New England, 19- 

23, 30-35. 
Minister's Wooing, 169, 267. 



INDEX 



337 



Mitchell, Donald Grant, 205-206, 

269, 273. 
Moby Dick, or the White Whale, 226. 
Modern Chivalry, 67, 81. 
Modem Instance, 228 n. 
"Monna Lisa," 162. 
Moody, William Vaughn, 290, 297. 
.More, Paul Elmer, 294, 298. 
Morris, George P., Ill, 125, 127. 
Mortal Antipathy, 197, 201. 
Morton, Thomas, 19, 46, 47. 
Mosses from an Old Manse, 185, 187, 
. 189, 190, 268. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 29, 206-207, 

269. # 

"Muckraking" essays, 292. 
"Murders in the Rue Morgue," 241. 
Murfree, Mary N., 287, 297. 
"My Country 'tis of Thee," 211, 270. 
"My Double and How he Undid 

Me," 269. 
"My Garden Acquaintance," 166, 

267, 271. 
" My Life is Like the Summer Rose," 

121. 
"My Lost Youth," ISO. 
"Mystery of Marie Roget," 241. 
My Study Fire, 298. 
My Study Windows, 165 n. 
My Summer in a Garden, 269. 

Narrative of Surprising Conversions, 

35, 48. 
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, 

236, 239. 
"Natty Bumpo," 126. 
Nature, 134. 
Neal, John, 118. 
"Negative Gravity," 285. 
"Nellie was a Lady," 250. 
"New England Nun," 286. 
New England Nun and other Stories, 

296. 
New England Primer, 21 n., 48. 
New England Tragedies, 178. 
New England, writings in, 14-36, 42, 

45-48, 51-61, 78-79, 80-81, 112- 

118, 123, 127, 129-212, 265-273. 
New English Canaan, 19. 



New Jersey, writings in, 69-71 ; see 

Middle Region. 
"New Roof," 65. 
New York, writings in, 61-62, 122- 

123, 124-126, 129, 212-231; see 

Middle Region. 
Nile Notes of a Howadji, 225. 
Norris, Frank, 288, 297. 
North American Review, 115, 127, 159. 
Notes on Virginia, 73. 
Norwood, Colonel, 45. 

O'Brien, FitzJames, 220, 274, 276. 

Octopus, 288, 297. 

"Ode in Time of Hesitation," 290. 

"Old Black Joe," 250. 

Old Cambridge, 270. 

Old Chester Tales, 297. 

Old Creole Days, 297. 

"Old Folks at Home," 250. 

Old Friends, 274. 

"Old Ironsides," 196-197. 

"Old Kentucky Home," 250. 

"Old Oaken Bucket," 111, 112. 

Oldtown Folks, 169, 267. 

"Oliver Oldschool," 119. 

Omoo, 226. 

"On a Bust of Dante," 203. v 

"On a Certain Condescension in 
Foreigners," 267. 

"One Hoss Shay," 199. 

Oregon Trail, see California and 
Oregon Trail. 

Ormond, 68. 

"Orphic Sayings," 147. 

Ossoli, Madame, see Fuller, Margaret. 

Otis, James, 52, 80, 83. 

"Our Master," 156 n. 

Our Old Home, 189. 

"Outcasts of Poker Flat," 259. 

"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rock- 
ing," 218. 

Outre-Mer, 175, 272. 

Over the Tea-Cups, 197, 199, 200. 

Page, Thomas Nelson, 287, 297. 
Paine, Robert Treat, Jr., 54. 
Paine, Thomas, 63-65, 79, 81, 83. 
Parker, Theodore, 141 n. 



338 



INDEX 



Parkman, Francis, 29, 206, 207-208, 

269, 273. 
"Parlor Car," 228 n. 
Parsons, Thomas William, 203-204, 

269. 
Partisan, 245. 
Passio?iate Pilgrim, 230 n. 
Pathfinder, 101. 

Paulding, James Kirke, 87, 91, 112. 
Payne, John Howard, 111, 125, 126, 

127. 
Penelope' s Progress, 296. 
"Penman of the Revolution," 65. 
Pennsylvania, writings in, see Phila- 
delphia, Middle Region. 
Percival, James Gates, 113, 127. 
Periodicals, 86, 127. 
Periods of American Literature, 1-2. 
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 

256 n., 257, 279. 
"Peter Parley," 113-114, 122, 127, 

185. 
"Peter Porcupine," 67. 
Pfaff's restaurant, 220, 275. 
Philadelphia, writings in, 119, 123, 

231-233 ; see Middle Region. 
Phillips, Wendell, 148-150, 208, 266, 

271. 
"Philosophy Four," 297. 
Philosophy of Composition, 238, 243. 
Pike County Ballads, 253. 
Pilot, 100, 101, 104, 125, 126. 
Pinkney, Edward Coate, 121, 127. 
Pioneer, 158. 
Pioneers, 100, 101, 125. 
Pit, 288, 297. 

"Pit and the Pendulum," 241. 
"Plain Talk from Truthful James," 

260. 
Pocahontas, 6 n. 
Poe, Edgar Allan, 68, 106, 126, 180 n., 

234-244, 264, 277, 278, 284. 
Poems of the Orient, 232. 
Poet at the Breakfast-Table, 197, 200. 
"Poetic Principle," 23s. 
Poetry in early New England, 23-27. 
Poets of America, 222. 
Points of View, 29s. 
Political satire, 83. 



Political writings in New England, 

51-52. 
Poor Richard's Almanac, 39, 48, 49. 
Portfolio, 119. 
Portrait of a Lady, 230 n. 
Pory, John, 45. 
Potiphar Papers, 225. 
Prairie, 101. 
Precaution, 99-100. 
Prentice, George D., 250 n. 
Prescott, William Hickling, 29, 206- 

207, 269. 
"Present Crisis," 160. 
"Pretty Story," 65. 
Prince, Thomas, 29. 
Prince and the Pauper, 256 n. 
"Prince Deukalion," 232. 
Prince of Parthia, 41, 48, 49. 
"Private Life," 230 n. 
Professor at the Breakfast-Table, 197. 
Professor's Story, see Elsie Venner. 
Progress of Dulness, 56, 81, 83. 
Prue and I, 225. 
"Psalm of Life," 176 n. 
Pudd'nhead Wilson, 256 n., 258, 279. 
Puritans, 14, 15, 16, 27, 42, 129, 132. 
"Purloined Letter," 241. 

"Rainy Day," 180. 

Ramona, 262, 279. 

Randolph, John, 119, 127. 

"Raven," 242, 243. 

Read, Thomas Buchanan, 233, 275, 
276. 

Readings and Topics, 80-83, 43-49, 
123-127, 265-280, 296-299. 

Recent Years in American literature, 
2, 281-299. 

Redeeined Captive Returning to Zion, 
28-29. 

Red Rock, 297. 

Red Rover, 100, 101. 

Reflections of a Married Man, 298. 

Religious writings in early New Eng- 
land, 19-23, 30-35. 

Renaissance of New England, 131. 

Repplier, Agnes, 294, 298. 

Representative Men, 134 n., 135. 

Reveries of a Bachelor, 206, 269, 273. 



INDEX 



339 



"Revolt of Mother," 286. 
Revolutionary Period in American 

Literature, 1, 50-83. 
Richard Carvel, 289, 297. 
Riggs, Mrs. George C, see Wiggin, 

Kate Douglas. 
Rights of Man, 64. 
Riley, James Whitcomb, 291, 298, 

299. 
Ripley, George, 133 n., 141 n. 
Rise of the Dutch Republic, 207 n. 
Rise of Silas Lapham, 228 n., 274. 
Rob of the Bowl, 121. 
Roderick Hudson, 230 n. 
Rollo books, 205. 
"Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem," 

204 n. 
Roughing It, 256 n., 257, 279. 
Rowlandson, Mary, 28, 47. 
Rowson, Susanna Haswell, 53-54, 81. 
Rudder Grange, 285, 296. 
"Ruling Passion," 55. 
Rustication, 158 n. 
Ryan, Abram J., 247, 277, 278. 

"Sage of Concord," 134 n. 

Salmagundi, 93, 112. 

Sandys, George, 9-10. 

San? Ilario, 288. 

Saracinesca, 288. 

Satire, political, 60, 66-67, 78. 

Scarlet Letter, 188, 191-192, 193, 

203 n., 268. 
Science of English Verse, 248, 249. 
Seabury, Samuel, 61. 
Sedgwick, Catherine M., 116. 
"Self-Reliance," 266. 
Septimius Felton, 189. 
Sermons in Colonial New England, 

21-22, 47 ; see also Ministers, 

Religious Writings. 
Seventy-six, 118. 
Sewall, Samuel, 29-30, 47, 48. 
Shaw, Henry W., 253-254, 279. 
"She Came and Went," 159 n., 160. 
Shelburne Essays, 298. 
Shepard, Thomas, 21, 45, 46. 
"Sheridan's Ride," 233. 
Short Sixes, 296. 



Short story in recent years, 284—287. 
"Sights from a Steeple," 190. 
Sigourney, Lydia Huntley, 113, 127. 
Sill, Edward Rowland, 261, 279. 
Silliman, Benjamin, 86. 
Simms, William Gilmore, 244-245, 

277, 278. 
Simple Cobler of Aggawamm, 22—23, 

47. 
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry 

God," 35. 
Sketch Book, 91-92, 93, 97, 124, 126, 

175. 
"Skipper Ireson's Ride," 155. 
"Sleeper," 242, 243. 
"Sleeping Car," 228 n. 
Smith, Captain John, 5-9, 10, 44, 45, 

48. 
Smith, F. Hopkinson, 287, 297. 
Smith, Samuel F., 211. 
Snow-Bound, 150, 151 n., 153, 155, 

271. 
Snow Image and other Twice Told 

Tales, 185, 187, 188, 189, 208. 
Society and Solitude, 134 n. 
"Society upon the Stanislaus," 260. 
"Song of Myself," 216 n., 220 n. 
Songs from Vagabondia, 290. 
Songs of the Desert, 261. 
"Songs of Labor and Reform," 156. 
Songs of the Mexican Seas, 261. 
Songs of the Revolution, 71-73, 82, 

83. 
Songs of the Sierras, 261. 
Songs of the Sunlands, 261. 
Sot-Weed Factor, 12, 13, 45. 
South, writings in, 4-14, 41-42, 44- 

45, 73-77, 79, 119-121, 123, 127, 

233-249, 276-278. 
Specimen Days, 214, 273, 275. 
Spectator, influence of, 37. 
"Sphinx," 140. 

Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes, 21. 
Spy, 100, 101, 104, 125. 
"Star-Spangled Banner," 121. 
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 220, 

221, 223, 231, 274, 276. 
Stockton, Francis (Frank) R., 285, 

296, 299. 



340 



INDEX 



Stoddard, Richard H., 220, 221-222, 

223, 231, 274, 276. 
Story, Joseph, 115 n. 
Story of a Bad Boy, 223. 
Story, William Wetmore, 203, 204, 

269. 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 148, 168— 

171, 202, 267, 271. 
Strachey, William, 9, 10, 44. 
Sumner, Charles, 208, 269. 
Sunnyside, 89. 
Swallow Barn, 120, 127. 
"Sword of Lee," 247. 
"Symphony," 249. 

Tabb, John B., 291. 

Tales of New England, 296. 

Tales of a Traveller, 93, 94, 97, 124. 

Tales of a Wayside Inn, 177—178, 268. 

Tamerlane, 242. 

Tamerlane and other Poems, 236. 

Tanglewood Tales, 188, 272. 

Taylor, Bayard, 155 n., 220, 231-233, 

275, 276. 
"Telling the Bees," 155. 
Tempest, perhaps influenced by 

Strachey, 9, 45. 
"Tenth Muse," 25. 
Tent on the Beach, 153, 155, 203 n. 
"Thanatopsis," 105, 106, 107, 108, 

126. 
Their Wedding Journey, 228 n. 
Thomas, Edith, 291. 
Thompson, Daniel P., 212, 270. 
Thoreau, 131 n., 141-145, 202, 208, 

266, 270. 
"Threnody," 140. 
Tieknor, George, 115 n. 
Tiger Lilies, 248. 
Timothy's Quest, 287, 296. 
Timrod, Henry, 244, 245-246, 277, 

278. 
"To a Pine-Tree, " 161. 
"To a Waterfowl," 105, 107. 
To Have and to Hold, 289, 297. 
"To Helen," 242, 243. 
Token, 187. 
"Tom Coffin," 104. 
Tom Sawyer, 256 n., 257, 258, 279. 



"Tone of Time," 230 n. 
Tour on the Prairies, 95. 
Tramp Abroad, 256 n. 
Transcendentalism, 132, 141 n., 171. 
Transcendentalists, New England, 

132-147. 
"Transferred Ghost," 285. 
Transformation, see Marble Faun. 
Trowbridge, J. T., 204-205, 269, 273. 
Trumbull, John, 55-57, 60, 61, 79, 

81, 83. 
True Relation, 6, 8. 
Twain, Mark, see " Mark Twain." 
Twice Told Tales, 185, 187, 189, 268. 
Two Men of Sandy Bar, 260. 
Two Years Before the Mast, 212, 270, 

273. 
Typee, 226. 

"Ulalume," 242, 243. 

"Uncle Remus," 286, 296. 

Cnvle Tom's Cabin, 169-171, 267, 271. 

" Unmanifest Destiny," 290. 

"Up the Coolly," 297. 

Van Bibber and Others, 296. 

Van Dyke, Henry, 291, 294, 298. 

Venetian Life, 227. 

Very, Jones, 141 n. 

Views Afoot, 231, 275. 

Vignettes of Manhattan, 286. 

Virginia, writings in, see South. 

Virginia Comedians, 247. 

Virginian, 297. 

Vision of Columbus, 59, 81, 83, 85 n. 

Vision of Sir Launfal, 159, 161, 168, 

L98 199 ii., 271. 
Voices of the Night, 176, 178. 

Wake Robin, 298. 

Walden or Life in the Woods, 143, 

266, 270. 
Wallace, Lew, 252-253, 279, 280. 
Ward, Nathaniel, 22-23, 46. 
Warner, Charles Dudley, 206, 269, 

27:;. 

Warren, Mercy Otis, 53, 80-81. 
Wayside, 185. 
Way to Wealth, 39. 



INDEX 



341 



Webster, Daniel, 117-118, 127, 154, 

208, 252. 
Webster's Dictionary, 86. 
Week on the Concord and Merrimac 

Rivers, 143. 
Weems, Mason L., 120. 
Wescott, Edward Noyes, 288. 
West, writings in, 121, 123, 249-262, 

279-280. 
"Westchester Farmer," 61. 
Westover Manuscripts, 13. 
Wharton, Edith, 289, 297. 
"What was It ? a Mystery," 220 n. 
"Wheel of Time," 230 n. 
"When Lilacs Last in the Door- 

Yard Bloomed," 218. 
Whitaker, Alexander, 45. 
White, Maria, 158. 
White Heron and Other Stories, 296. 
White Jacket, 226. 
Whitman, Walt, 213-219, 220, 264, 

273, 275-276. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 61, 126, 

129-130 n., 148, 150-156, 181, 201, 

202, 203 n., 221, 266-267, 271. 
Wieland, 68, 82. 

Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 287, 296. 
Wigglesworth, Michael, 25-26, 46. 
Wilde, Richard Henry, 121, 127. 
"Wild Honeysuckle," 70 n. 
Wilkins, Mary E., sec Freeman, Mary 

E. Wilkins. 
Williams, Reverend John, 28-29, 47. 



"William Wilson," 234 n. 

.Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 224, 274, 

276. 
Wind in the Rose-Bush and other 

Stories of the Supernatural, 296. 
Winter, William, 220, 273-274. 
Winthrop, John, 17, 18, 29, 45, 46, 

47. 
W r irt, William, 120, 127. 
Wister, Owen, 287, 297. 
Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 

271. 
Wonder Book, 188. 
"Wonderful Tar-Baby Story," 286. 
Wonders of the Invisible World, 32, 48. 
" Wondersmith," 220 n. 
Woodberry, George E., 291, 294. 
"Woodman, Spare that Tree," 111. 
"Woodnotes," 140. 
Woodworth, Samuel, 111, 125, 127. 
Woolman, John, 71, 77, 79, 82, 83. 
Worcester's Dictionary, 86. 
Won nd-Dresser, 275. 
Wrack and Redemption of Sir Thomas 

Gates, 9. 

Yale College, 55. 

"Yankee Doodle," 72, 73. 

Yemassee, 245, 277. 

Yesterdays with Authors, 203, 269. 

Youth of Jefferson, 247. 

Zadoc Pine and other Stories, 285. 



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